


Us Earthlings Stick Together

by Enlightened_Introvert



Series: Earthlings [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Headcanons/Theories, Light Grief/Mourning, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, possible canon divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2018-11-30 17:10:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 43,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11467983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enlightened_Introvert/pseuds/Enlightened_Introvert
Summary: The war is over, but that battle has only begun. In the trying times following Pink Diamond's death, the Quartzes from Earth must learn to work together despite their inherent differences. This is a collection of stories documenting their experiences at the human zoo, and possibly beyond.





	1. Prelude to a New Life

Amidst Homeworld’s countless failings in regards its Earth-born soldiers, they were never instructed on how to deal with grief.

The news of Pink Diamond’s demise was met with shocked silence, but not surprised. Everyone on the escape pod already knew—they felt it at the core of their beings—that their very reason for living was shattered by the rebel leader, Rose Quartz. The shock long preceded the news as the Quartzes finally, after hundreds of years, were given a moment to think of everything that they had lost and everything they had yet to lose.

The silence dissolved quickly, however, as the aftermath of war made itself apparent. Down every hallway was a new tragic scene, cracked gems waiting to be shattered by a Peridot or a merciful sister. Agonized groans, shouted commands, and frustrated curses filled the air, as gem bodies filled every inch of space. Besides being the site of Pink Diamond’s murder, this battle saw some of the highest casualties since the raids at Beta.

Pink Diamond was shattered. May the stars welcome their most radiant addition, so that she may smile down on the efforts of her most faithful soldiers, loyal to the end. Unfortunately for some of the survivors, the “end” had a greater air of finality to it, as they didn’t even attempt to hope for a place in Homeworld’s caste. The Betas did not fit into the Homeworld’s mold, and it had been an inevitable possibility that they would not survive the war, in battle or in failure. At the very least, the Prime had the luxury of uncertainty whether be allowed to integrate into society, or otherwise meet the same fate as the Rose Quartzes.

 

Skinny was sprinting through the cramped quarters, searching for someone, anyone, from Beta. So far, she had only seen four survivors, including Carnelian, who was struggling to keep up with her. The injured and exhausted Amethysts sprawled across the narrow corridors made it all the more difficult for her to pass through, resorting to clamoring over knees.

“Slow down! They aren’t going anywhere, Skinny!” She cried, but to no avail.

Her mind was still on the battlefield, watching as her closest companion charged off to her own end, the perfect soldier from the tragically imperfect kindergarten, left behind on a forsaken planet. It left a painful emptiness within her that only urged Skinny to move faster, terrified of the thought of losing anyone else.

Skirting around the corner, she nearly collided with the crouched form of a Peridot, who was in the middle of mending a hairline fracture on a particularly antsy Amethyst, so affected was she by the damage. At the sight of the unusually slight soldier, however, she seemed to calm down a bit, finally allowing the Peridot to get to work.

“H-hey! What’s the rush? Jasper, right?” She asked, her casual tone contrasting with the jittery nervousness in her voice.

“Have you seen any Betas?” She asked quickly, swinging her head left and right impatiently and craning her neck.

The injured Amethyst shook her head, wincing as the Peridot’s laser pen began to melt the fractured stone on her shoulder into place. “None,” She replied, frowning sympathetically. “Are you alone?”

The stricken look on Skinny’s face wasn’t promising.

Thankfully, Carnelian came to the rescue as she slid into the space, much to the irritation of the over-worked technician. She took hold of the Jasper’s thin hand in a vice-like grip as she addressed the Amethyst. “There are some of us left. We were just wondering if you had seen any more. Thanks, anyway.”

Just as she began to guide Skinny to a less crowded area, she heard the Amethyst speak up. “I know how it feels. I lost the entire rest of my column in this last battle.” Melancholy dripped from her voice, carrying more weight than anger or tears ever could. “Six of them defected, three were caught and shattered. The rest died in battle. ‘Cept one, who fell apart on the ship.” She pointed to an unoccupied space a few feet away. “Right over there. Loyal to the end, that one. Funny, being surrounded by gems just like you and feeling so, so alone.”

It was all too much for Skinny to bear. “I’m so sorry,” she offered.

The Amethyst shook her head, laughing humorlessly. “I’ll get over it; I have to. That’s what you do, right? Course, I’ve heard about what happened at Beta.”

“We keep going and never give up,” Skinny all but quoted bitterly, hearing Fire Agate’s commanding voice in her head ordering her to believe it. It almost felt like a cruel joke now.

The Amethyst didn’t seem to notice her change in tone. “That’s good. I hope you find more of your team, Jasper.”

Skinny nodded once, feeling the anxiety pull her onward once more. Carnelian, however, was dragging her back the way they came, towards the survivors that they knew about. After a hasty goodbye to the Amethyst and an apology to the Peridot (who irritably accepted), they began the trek back through the mayhem.

On a normal day, Skinny would have felt a little weird about holding Carnelian’s hand in the midst of all these soldiers and technicians, but at the moment it was the only thing that was keeping her grounded, from doing something stupid. Of course, when had they ever had a normal day in the first place? It had always been one disaster after the next, but she still had the vague idea that things were better at some indeterminable moment in time.

“Talk to me,” Carnelian said, squeezing Skinny’s fingers in encouragement.

She remained silent, feeling incapable of speech.

“Is it about Muscles?” Carnelian asked, referring to their mountainous sister who was left behind. “There’s nothing any of us coulda done to stop her.”

“I know,” Skinny replied sullenly, wrapping her arms around her midsection, “but it just isn’t fair. None of this is fair. I’m so tired of all this fighting and shattering…”

“Me, too,” Carnelian sighed, remembering the other Carnelians that she never got to know because of the actions of the Crystal Gems and the ill-advised decisions from their own Homeworld.

 

Amethyst cut 8XL was in no way a leader.

When the column 8 leader failed to emerge—mere years before Prime was taken and shut down by the Crystal Gems—8XL was forced to fill that position, as the most qualified 8 for the job. In practice, however, she was miserable with all of the responsibility. She was tasked to keep her column motivated and on task, formulate battle strategies (which she was lousy at and often required help from her teammates), and to pass on their Agate’s instructions to her team. They’re failure at the mission at hand was her own personal failure as a leader, and she just couldn’t take it.

She had been thrust into this position early on, and someone had to bear the burden. All of the strife had been worth it, as long as she was helping the others be the best team that they could be. That sentiment was more important now than ever, with the threat of being accused of treason so high.

Although the Rose Quartzes from the Alpha Kindergarten had faced imprisonment because of the actions of one of their own, the Prime Kindergarten had turned out the most traitors in Homeworld’s recorded history. Over a third of the population defected to the Crystal Gem’s cause, and nearly another third had been lost to shattering, leading to the crisis that prompted Beta’s formation.

Column 8 had been one of the lucky ones, in which all the gems were loyal to the end, whether it was the end of the war or the end of their lives. In the past 500 years, five of the thirteen had been shattered, and one did not emerge, leaving a group of seven weathered-but-not-broken soldiers. Although 8XL wasn’t a leader, she had been at this for quite a while, and she wasn’t intending to give up on her sisters yet, not now.

8XL paced before her comrades: 8XB, 8XC, 8XF, 8XG, 8XI, and 8XJ, who were all in varying states of disbelief. They all snuck distrustful glances at the other groups around them, wondering if there were any traitors among them that had escaped Earth undetected. It was unlikely, yet old habits die hard.

She couldn’t just stay idle, and she didn’t want to pace like a lunatic and worry her sisters any longer. “Jay,” she stated, suddenly coming up with an idea, “remember when we first emerged?”

“Yeah, why?” She asked, looking as if she didn’t feel like reminiscing about the past.

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly, hopefully. “We need something nice to talk about.”

“Thinking about Prime is kinda sad,” Cee sighed.

Eff punched her in the shoulder. “Well yeah, with that attitude!”

“I remember I came out before you,” Bee chuckled, ruffling Cee’s hair.

Cee swatted her hand away. “Well, duh, you were above me! You came out first!”

“Ay came out first,” Bee clarified soberly. “She just…isn’t here to tease us about it.”

“Bee’s the oldest out of us,” Eye proclaimed, trying to keep the good vibes on track, “but I have to say that Jay had the most dramatic exit.”

“If by dramatic you mean I fell on an Agate and almost got my ass kicked, then yeah,” Jay laughed. They all joined in at the memory of Jay plummeting from the rock face onto the unsuspecting Agate, who was beginning to brief the newly emerged gems on their life’s mission. How could they forget the look of utter shock on her face as she found herself squashed beneath the newest recruit, before that quickly dissolved in anger.

Gee grinned, whipping a tear from her eye. “Remember that Peridot that got mad at _us_ when Em didn’t come out on time? As if we had any control over when the others emerged! Heck we didn’t even have control over ourselves.”

“Yeah, that Em,” 8XL sighed, smiling sadly. “She just didn’t wanna come out. I don’t blame her, with all this mess we’re in now.”

The others agreed, carrying on a companionable conversation along this thread and ignoring the fact that such talk was edging on treasonous, by the unspoken rules of Homeworld conventions. In the wake of tragedy, however, it was hard not to voice what everyone thought but never said out loud.

 

There were very few windows on the ship, and the only view that could be seen from them was the endless void of space. It was needless to say that the soldiers quickly lost interest after the novelty of it wore off, and only a few checked back time and again for interesting developments. Thus, it came as a shock when rumor spread of a great, pink space station coming into view as the pods flew towards it. The ship was suddenly abuzz with nervous excitement, as the curious soldiers had never seen a space station before, but the fact that it wasn’t Homeworld put them on edge.

Skinny stood with her pitiful gathering of Betas, rubbing the space around her gem where a Peridot had just been probing. In the moments before the station came into view, the technicians were set upon the weary Quartzes once more, rechecking gemstones and setting up proper records within the database, particularly for the Betas who had never had the opportunity. Skinny found the whole affair pointless, as they were likely to be shattered as soon as they made it to Homeworld. However, conventions were conventions, and she kept her mouth shut for the sake of her sisters, who were still recovering from the shellshock.

All in all, the impromptu check-up took merely a couple minutes per gem; the Peridots were nothing if not efficient.

“What’s this about a space station?” Split, a Jasper who was almost entirely red on one side, asked incredulously. “I thought we were heading to Homeworld?”

“I have no idea,” Carnelian replied, perplexed.

“Are they gonna shatter us here, then?” Another Jasper asked.

“What are we going to do?” A third questioned, and all four Betas turned to Skinny.

“What?” Skinny asked, gazing back at them in confusion, before realization hit her. “No. No, no, no, I’m not gonna do this!”

Carnelian looked up at her pleadingly. “Please, Skinny. We don’t have Muscles anymore. W-we need a leader, and you’ve always been the voice of reason in tough times.”

“Why can’t one of you do it?” She retorted stubbornly, becoming increasingly frustrated with herself.

“Please,” Carnelian repeated quietly, desperately.

Of all of the thoughts that had raced through her head since she last saw Jasper on the battlefield, this one was one of the first, and by far her most selfish. It was inevitable that, with Muscles gone, she would be expected to take her place as the team leader. The idea that she had to lead her team to their potential doom had always terrified her, and now that it was a looming probability, the weight could not have been heavier on her shoulders.

Despite her intense love for her team, however, there was nothing she could do, besides put on some semblance of a brave face. She sighed in resignation. “We’ll do what we were made to do,” she stated, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. “We’ll do as we’re told, when we’re told, to the best of our ability, and remain an asset for as long as the Diamonds have a use for us. Understand?”

This wasn’t the solution that they had been hoping for, but the four agreed. The only other option—albeit a non-option for the gem lacking in a death wish—was treason, and Jaspers were notoriously loyal to the end, even at the cost of their lives.

Two of the three ships docked at the space station, the third obviously lacking of Earth-born soldiers. By the time their ship had attached to the station’s hangar, the first ship was already leaving, abandoning its cargo. The air of finality gave Skinny chills. Carnelian, seeming to sense her distress (or having felt it more acutely), she grabbed onto her companion’s hand once more.

Skinny looked about the hangar in momentary amazement, torn between marveling at the sheer amount of Amethysts in one place and mourning the fact that so many gems, Primes and Betas alike, had been lost. She heard her comrades express similar sentiments beside her, squeezing closer so as not to disturb the clusters of gems that they passed. The noise was even more deafening than it had been in the ship, with various columns and cuts reuniting, relief and grief making themselves apparent in equal doses.

“Oh, stars!” She heard a familiar voice cry as she spun to face them. If she had a heart, it would have stopped at that moment.

Ten Betas, more than she could have ever hoped to see, all from her cut and all in pristine condition. They rushed over to the group, and it was only when she felt large arms crushing her that she realized she was sobbing hideously, undoubtedly drawing unwanted attention from the other gems around them, but it was too late to be self-conscious. Besides, everyone was crying from relief.

“I knew you two made it!” She heard Cleft cry, mussing up her hair fondly as Skinny swiped at her tears. “There’s no way you would have missed out on being rescued, after all this. But where’s-“

She was cut off by unmistakable sound of heels against tile, announcing the presence of an Agate. There were plenty of Agates among the soldiers, but the fact that it had gone so deathly silent for it to be heard meant that something was happening.

All eyes turned towards the entrance of the facility, where the other Agates were converged, deep in conversation. Stepping in their midst was a blue Agate, the likes of which none of the soldiers had seen, at least not as one of their own commanders. She must have arrived before them, or else she had been there the whole time, keeping the place in operation. But what a strange occupation for an Agate, cooped up in a space station in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to helping lead an army on some battlefield somewhere.

There was something about the hateful glances she stole towards the gathered masses that told them that they were at their final destination. Regardless of their actual occupation here, this was to be their eternal prison and this Agate was their unwilling, eternal warden.


	2. Feeling Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Quartzes become acquainted with a new Agate, a new Diamond, and a new life.

Anticipating the onslaught that was to come, the soldiers hastily arranged themselves into proper formations. They had naturally gathered in their designated columns upon leaving the ships, but it was difficult for some groups to stand so close to others, groups that had been separated from one another for possibly hundreds of years, despite having come out of the ground so close to one another. Stories of deserters set them on edge, looking distrustfully on the soldiers whose group lost a significant amount to the enemy, however the alternative to standing beside them would surely be less pleasant.

Finally, a dead silence filled the room as the blue Agate marched down the steps of the facility with a consistent _click click_ of her heels.

The Quartz soldiers were very much acquainted with Agates, and this one's Quartzness was unquestionable. What set her apart from the Agates employed by Pink Diamond was the prissy, self-important demeanor that all of Blue Diamond’s court possessed. It was a quality that the older Amethysts were familiar with as Blue's aristocratic gems had worked alongside them for a time during the early years of the war, up until the raid on Beta. All in all, she was equal parts intimidating and annoying to the young soldiers, and they were unsure of how to react.

She made that easy enough.

Reaching around to the gem behind her head—not the best location, but a few of the soldiers began to wonder what that meant for her perception skills—and out from the glowing stone snapped a wicked blue whip, electricity crackling across its surface. The entire gathering of Quartzes simultaneously flinched at the sight and sound of it, understanding their position in this exchange at once. She snapped it once more for effect unnecessarily, making sure she had everyone’s attention. A couple of the other Agates shared a bored glance.

“Did they not teach you how to properly greet your superior?” She barked, gripping the handle threateningly. A few of dumber Amethysts attempted to answer the rhetorical question, only to be shushed by their smarter compatriots, as everyone threw up the standard diamond salute.

She smirked in satisfaction, much to the unease of the gathered soldiers.

“Now,” she began, tapping the handle against her palm as she paced in front of the tense soldiers, the tail of the whip brushing the ground mere inches from the front line’s feet, “first thing’s first: you will answer my inquiries with ‘yes, Holly Blue Agate,’ or ‘no, Holly Blue Agate,’ and I will decide whether it is an appropriate answer. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Holly Blue Agate,” they answered in unison. An Agate audibly groaned at the spectacle, but Holly Blue appeared to ignore it.

“You are here because our gracious, forgiving, lustrous Blue Diamond has taken an interest in preserving this facility.” She made a broad, sweeping gesture. “This was Pink Diamond’s menagerie, where humans have been housed, cared for, and bred since their discovery in the early centuries of colonization on the Crystal System colony planet Earth. You are here to maintain it, so that it may never sink from its current glory!”

“Is this not a job for technicians and organics experts?” A dusky purple Agate interrupted dolefully. “These are soldiers, not Peridots. I’m sure the Calcites can manage this place just fine with only a couple guards.”

The soldiers would have been amused by this if it weren’t for the implication that they weren’t needed. It all led back to the fear of being imprisoned or shattered for the transgressions of their sisters and one particularly treacherous Rose Quartz, if not for physical defects that they couldn’t control.

“It isn’t your place question the will of the Diamonds,” Holly replied pointedly, obviously struggling with this same realization.

The two Agates argued about this point for some time as if the other soldiers did not exist, until the large doors in the far side of the docking bay opened with a _woosh,_ startling everyone into silence. Out glided an imposing, shrouded blue figure—unmistakably Blue Diamond, even to those who had never seen her in person—followed by her dutiful Pearl. The poor thing was practically sprinting to keep up with her Diamond’s stride, skirt swishing frantically about her knees. Everyone in the room stared in shock for a moment before the Agates and technicians followed the unwitting example of the soldiers, saluting the Diamond in a similar fashion.

Holly immediately dissipated her whip, ensuring that she was at the forefront of Blue’s attention. “M-my Diamond, what a surprise! And so soon after-“

Blue held up her hand, silencing her Agate, before turning to regard the other gems in the docking bay. Although her eyes were covered, each individual gem could feel her eyes settle on them, one after another, peering into the core of their beings. The air about her felt cold and negative, eliciting an almost visceral reaction from the other gems, who were desperately fighting the urge to cry. Her Pearl appeared to be almost as bewildered as they were, attempting to appear demure while subtly wringing her hands.

The Diamond's gaze swept across the Earthling soldiers as she spoke in a mild, soft voice that seemed to resonant with boundless sadness.

“I wanted to see those who were left of Pink’s colony before returning to Homeworld,” she stated, scanning the small army before her, “the last of her loyal subjects. I’ve taken it upon myself to employ you here, safe from further harm. You, too, will be preserved as a part of your former Diamond’s legacy, what once was.”

The Quartzes could do nothing but nod dumbly, transfixed by the powerful being before them. To know that their fate rested solely in her hands was incomprehensible.

“Consider this to be a second chance, redemption for the deeds of lesser gems,” she continued, the deathly calm in her tone enough to strike fear in even the bravest of warriors. “They were disgraceful, traitorous rebels that deserved the worst fate imaginable. You are the few who have stayed true, despite the seductive nature of the Crystal Gem’s doctrine. Surely, you will not disappoint me, yes?”

They nodded again, feeling the tension in the room thicken.

“My Diamond!” Holly Blue Agate interjected, attempting to regain some sort of composure. After all, her own position was at stake in this endeavor, too. “I’m-I’m sure, with my careful supervision and instruction, there will be no issues.”

“I should hope so,” Blue Diamond replied, looking at the other gems once more before turning to the door she entered from. “Very good. Come along, Pearl.”

“Yes, my Diamond,” the Pearl said in a vague, airy voice, falling in step behind her mistress.

And then they were gliding out of the docking bay as if they had casually stopped by, bringing the negative feelings with them. It felt as if a great weight was lifted off of the group; even the Agates seemed to sigh in relief. The young soldiers were not well-versed in the ways of the Diamonds outside of Pink, but their commanders knew all too well the power of Blue Diamond’s emotions. No one had expected her to show up so soon after Pink Diamond’s death—it was well-known that Blue and Pink had been very close—and the sudden appearance made them think the worst was about to occur.

Holly, slung her wrist to the side, realized she no longer had her whip, and settled on furiously clapping her hands together. “Come now! The sooner we finish this reassignment process, the sooner you can get to work! Move it!”

 

8XL’s dormant gem came to life in a flash, her light-form solidifying around the stone on her hip as her body hovered within the confined space. She stumbled as her feet sank the floor of her assigned cubby, and she fell into a crouch as she groggily looked around at the other awakening gems.

The Peridots wasted no time in ushering column after column of Quartzes into their new, brightly lit barracks for dissipation and reprogramming for their new uniforms, before being placed in their own assigned cubbies (an order that all promptly ignored). At their disposal was a new type of technology to test on the soldiers when they arrived at the station, a device designed to sap the soldier (or any gem) of her energy, forcing her to retreat into her gemstone. It was supposed to be less disorienting and deterred the gem from reforming as quickly (needing the extra time to replenish her energy), but it left the group feeling drained.

Although the heavy feeling had left with Blue Diamond, an uneasy energy remained, putting everyone on edge. It didn’t help that tensions had already been high between the Amethysts, with the threat of traitors so real within their ranks. The remaining gems had, especially those from the particularly afflicted platoons, had more than proven their loyalty, but it was hard to lose the suspicion that so many had had to adopt. In the face of rebellion, objectivity had to take precedence of subjectivity, even if it meant ratting on one of your own.

At that moment, it manifested in an argument between two Amethysts on the other side of the barracks. 8XL felt her head throb at the noise; this said a lot, considering how loud and rowdy normally were around each other.

“Ell, You okay?” She heard Jay ask from above, poking her head insistently. She was always the most perceptive of the group, in-tune with the emotions of her teammates.

“I will be,” 8XL sighed, smiling up at her column mate and tugging at the persistent curl that hung down Jay’s shoulder. Her smile dropped a bit as the argument grew louder. “Wish we could just get along.”

Jay grimaced, nodding sympathetically. Perhaps they just didn’t understand. Their platoon had seen the lowest number of defectors out of their kindergarten—due to their being the final platoon in production before Prime was shut down—and thus had the least amount of conflict. They erred on the side of caution, but it didn’t affect them like it did the others.

“Ugh, never been conked like that before,” Bee groaned, already walking around. “What’re they giving those techies?”

“Didn’t hurt, at least,” Eye confirmed, smoothing down her wild, lavender hair, before rubbing the gem on the right side of her face tiredly. “Uhhhh, ‘cept my head.”

“And these uniforms,” Gee added, pulling at the blue fabric, “they’re so blue, and we’re so…not.”

“It could be worse,” a Jasper stated, glancing down distastefully at the blue against her orange skin.

8XL, blurry eyed and all, looked over at the knot of unmistakably red and orange gems hanging around in a corner. “It doesn’t look…so bad…” she lied, biting back a smile.

“Hey, we’re more like a team, at least! We all match, now,” Jay replied in a bout of optimism.

The Jasper grimaced stubbornly. “I prefer our old color. Made us blend in better at Beta. Heck, now we’ll stand out no matter where we go!”

“What makes you think we’re going anywhere?” Another Jasper asked cynically.

“You betas alright?” 8XL interupted, unsure whether they were the same or worse off than the Primes. She didn’t want to assume weakness, however, as so many of her sisters tended to do in reference to the defective gems.

The little Carnelian, who had been lying face down on the floor, sat up and made a pitiful attempt at a cocky laugh, throwing her thumb over her shoulder at the gathered Jaspers. “I don’t know about these losers, but _I’ve_ felt worse.”

“Like when that Tourmaline tried to shatter you by stomping on your gem?” One of the Jaspers quipped. “And then she punted you across Beta when that didn’t shatter you?” The others snickered in assent.

The Carnelian looked offended, but not for the reason that 8XL was expecting. “Is that the best you can come up with? I’ve had _much_ worse happen to me!” However, she did grimace at the memory of nearly being crushed under that Crystal Gem’s boot.

“C’mon, let her brag,” the defective, skinny Jasper insisted coolly. “She’s taken just as much of a beating as the rest of us _and_ has always come out without a scratch. She’s pretty tough.” Then, she smirked and added, “for a twerp.”

“Huh, I think you’re pretty tough, too!” Carnelian fired back. “For a twig.”

Skinny shrugged, grinning coolly. “Eh, smaller targets.”

“But I’m smaller!”

 _These Betas are alright,_ 8XL thought with a grin, watching the banter unfold, _weird sense of humor, but they’re alright._

The fighting was beginning to get violent as the Amethysts started to shove each other, but no one had to energy to stop them. Let their own column mates settle the dispute peacefully, or better yet, let them fight it out and if Holly catches them, then so be it. Everything had happened so fast, so soon, always changing, and the soldiers simply could not adjust fast enough. But they would; they had to, if they wanted to survive.

A deep sadness drove them to irritation and defensiveness, stuck to them like the uniforms on their bodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Against my better judgement, it appears that I'm once again posting this after midnight. So many things have happened in the past couple weeks, plus I've been dealing with writer's block, so that's why this chapter took so long. Trust me, most of this isn't going to be so bleak! Thanks for reading!


	3. A Tale of Two Leaders

Skinny hated coming back to the barracks alone.

The past few years had been a flurry of confusing new changes to the facility that they were expected to understand, visiting dignitaries they weren’t allowed to see (let alone interact with), and stupid rules they had no intention of following. To top it all off, the Betas were spread thin across the facility, sometimes going days or even weeks without seeing one another. It was extremely difficult—as the unwilling, impromptu leader—to reassure her sisters and keep them on the right track when she hardly had a chance to see them.

The weight of leadership grew heavier and heavier by the day, and Skinny was beginning to wonder if Muscles, her mountainous companion, had felt the same away at some point. How in the cosmos did she do it? Whenever Skinny made an attempt at encouraging her team in a way that should have inspired them, all she received was skeptical looks and concerns for her mental stability.

She sighed heavily, crossing her arms defensively across her abdomen and continued down the bright corridor, feeling homesick and lonely.

“Hey, Skinny!” She heard a familiar voice call. Not paying attention, she collided bodily into the large orange gem, who them grasped her forearms partially for support and partially to keep Skinny from punching her out of surprise.

“Bandit!” Skinny replied, addressing one of the triplets. They had never retained solid nicknames during the war, always having been addressed as “the triplets,” but Bandit was one of the names that began to stick, and it was always used interchangeably among them. “Where did you come from?”

Her grin fell a bit, turning to irritation as she pointed towards one of the utility hatches—hidden against the wall save for its hairline impression—and grumbled, “Split and Cleft are at it again and we need more supplies. Can’t stand them like this.”

Skinny wasn’t sure she understood. “Wha- what do you mean ‘again’? They never had a problem with each other before!”

“It’s a recent development,” Bandit explained, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I think the tension is getting to them.”

It was only a matter of time, Skinny knew this, but she wasn’t prepared to deal with this. She couldn’t even sufficiently encourage her team on a good day; how was she supposed to resolve this conflict in a leaderly, impartial way? Putting on what she hoped was a confident smile, she made her way to the room. “I’ll take care of it!”

“You do that,” Bandit chuckled, making her way down the corridor.

“By the time you get back, everything will be back to normal!” Skinny called much too enthusiastically.

“If you say so!”

“I mean it!” She wished she felt it as much as she said she did.

Slipping through the hatch, she was met with stony silence and tools violently meeting with metal. At least there was no question that there was a conflict to be dealt with. Taking a deep breath and silently reminding herself that conflict resolution was one of her strong points back on Earth, she cleared her throat loudly to get their attention.

Split looked up first, gazing at Skinny in pleasant surprise. “Skins, shirking your responsibilities to come see us losers? You really do care,” she commented with a smirk.

“Please, I’m considered the top loser around here,” Skinny replied smoothly.

“I think Carnelian would beg to differ.”

“Carnelian isn’t here right now, and _this_ Top Loser says to keep up the good work!” She chuckled awkwardly, pointing her thumb towards herself for emphasis.

“You haven’t even seen what we’re doing,” Split pointed out.

Skinny craned her neck exaggeratedly, even though she was easily half a head taller than the rest of them, humming appraisingly. “Yes, it looks good, great even,” She finally replied, entirely too enthusiastic. “I don’t need to know what it is to appreciate…expert…assembly…”

Cleft sighed, deliberately laying her tools down. “What are you really up to? You’re not usually this…chipper.”

“I’m just checking in on my team,” Skinny all but whined, deflating a bit. “I thought…I don’t know, maybe I could…look, I talked to Bandit, and she said there was a problem, and I don’t want us to end up like the Primes, so I figured that I would try to resolve it before it got too bad, you know?”

The two Jaspers glanced at each other in confusion, their previous grievances momentarily forgotten. She rarely tried this hard, at least not when it came to her relationship with the rest of them. On Earth, she had simply got along swimmingly with everyone, always casually caring for everyone, but now it felt as if she had never had a positive interaction in her life.

“Uhhh…we’re fine, thanks, Seriously, it’s not a big deal. We’re just frustrated and we took it out on each other, is all,” Split replied hesitantly, attempting a smile. Great. Once again, they were more concerned about her than themselves. “Do you have something else you should be doing? If Holly f-”

“Yes, I know,” Skinny interrupted, waving her hand dismissively as she retreated back towards the hatch, feeling her face begin to burn. “I’m actually on break right now.”

“Ugh, lucky. You deserve it, though,” Cleft stated, obviously attempting to put aside her anger to smile encouragingly. “Always giving 200% just to get by.”

Skinny was more uncomfortable about the praise than pleased, but she nodded appreciatively nonetheless and ducked out of the room, letting the door hiss shut behind her. She suddenly didn’t want to see any more Betas for the rest of the day.

 

For the first time in weeks, all was quiet in the barracks. Maybe it was the newest renovations that Blue Diamond ordered that left them tired and complacent, or perhaps it was the fact that so many gems were at work, and so little on break. Either way, it was nice to have a little peace.

8XL was lounging in the middle of the barracks with Gee and Eye when Skinny trudged into the barracks, looking utterly miserable. She claimed the hole that was closest to the door and scooted into the shadowy recesses at the very back. Despite the tension that had plagued them all, the Betas were surprisingly calm, and Skinny was the most relaxed of the bunch. Seeing her in such a state left 8XL feeling unsettled.

“Something’s wrong,” she remarked to her companions, who murmured their agreement. “Should we go meddle or something?”

“You go ahead,” Gee replied with a yawn as she leaned back on the floor. “I’ve seen enough drama to last a millennium.”

Eye had climbed into a hole behind them and was already passed out inside it, her feet dangling over the edge.

“Good choice,” 8XL laughed, putting on her snootiest diplomat voice, “however I, being of the mind to make bad choices that may negatively affect my day, shall partake of the meddling route.” With a bow, she turned and marched up to the occupied hole to do just as she said.

Her interacts with the Betas had been limited, mostly by her lack of time and their lack of interest, but she had had a few good conversations with Skinny, all small talk and war stories. She was always bemused and lightly cynical, the perfect gem to vent to. Although she didn’t buy into the “this Amethyst is secretly a traitor” conspiracy theories, she felt more safe talking about the pressures of their ill-assigned jobs than she was with some of her own sisters from Prime.

“Why the long face, Stripey?” She asked, trying to lighten the mood right off the bat.

The Jasper turned and smirked at her drearily. “I came out looking like this,” she joked weakly.

8XL’s grin drooped a bit, and she replied, “You look down, is all. What’s wrong?” before sitting on the edge of the hole and awaiting a response.

Skinny gnawed on her bottom lip, a nervous habit 8XL had noticed in their few interactions. With a sigh, Skinny replied, “it just feels like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Doing what?” 8XL asked, confused. “You get along with everyone and, as far as I know, you don’t step on Holly’s toes, not as much as us Amethysts do.”

“I know, I know. It’s…how do you do it? Being a good leader? I’ve tried and tried and it just doesn’t feel…”

“Right?” 8XL suggested. Skinny nodded dismally. “I hear ya. I’m not much of leader myself, never was.” She frowned at the memory of 8XM. “For the longest time, I had all this doubt, feeling like I was just second best and dragging the team down. We’d go into battle, and every failure felt like my fault and mine alone. Lots a pressure.”

“So, what did you do then?” Skinny prompted.

8XL grinned at her earnest expression. She didn’t think this Jasper would be so in to a conversation about feelings. “I stopped trying so hard and started acting more like myself. You didn’t choose to do this, right?”

“Yes…”

“I didn’t either. Our teams chose _us_ because, in some way or another, our leaderships are a comfort to them. They don’t look for comfort from the Agates or higher-ranking soldiers, but their own column mates, their own sisters. You get it?”

“They think I’ve gone crazy!” Skinny exclaimed incredulously.

“Only because you aren’t acting like yourself,” she replied as gently as she could. “Even I can see that, and I hardly know you.” She squeezed her shoulder tightly. “You Jaspers worry too much, which I suppose isn’t your fault, given the circumstances. Anyways, you got this. It’s just a learning process.”

Skinny’s expression was unreadable, and 8XL was worried that she hadn’t made the breakthrough she was hoping to make. This had to pan out, or else another significant section of the Earth Quartzes would fall apart, as so many of her sisters had done. It was all too much to bear. However, she didn’t have to worry for long.

“A learning process…” Skinny finally said, mulling over the idea as a tiny smile played on her face. “I know a thing or two about that. I’ve always had to learn to adapt because I’m not as big and definitely not as strong as the others. I like learning.”

“Good thing,” 8XL replied, slipping her arm around Skinny’s narrow shoulders. “’cause I’m in a teaching mood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and thus a beautiful new friendship was born! I really wanted to explore Skinny's struggle as a leader and not being comfortable with the position. Jasper was always the leader, with Skinny as the moral support, so all of this is kinda new to her. She's also the most uncomfortable belly gem, who has all of these mushy emotions but doesn't know what to do with them (but I'll get into that later ;) ). Anyways, thanks for reading! (PS sorry for all the dialogue)


	4. The Boiling Point

_Guard duty!_ 8XF mocked inside her head in a ridiculous Holly voice, _and you! Keep your mouth shut when the Pink Spinel arrives._

She worked her jaw moodily, deliberately pressing her unusually sharp teeth against the inside walls of her mouth, as she stood guard at the main entrance of the docking bay. At first, her teeth had been a sore spot for her—both literally and metaphorically—despite the fact that it wasn’t actually a defect. Sure, she wasn’t necessarily supposed to look that way, but a defect was something that actually hindered one from completing her assigned duty, which it didn’t as long as she didn’t focus on it. At least it wasn’t as noticeable as poor 9XG. Odd inclusions made her a Strawberry Quartz rather than a full-fledged Amethyst and she had developed a similar anomaly to 8XF, with a chip in her teeth. As a result of her imperfections, she was a nervous wreck half the time, and the mocking from their superiors didn’t make it any better. 8XF was undoubtedly the tank of her group, but she couldn’t deny that she had a soft spot for 9-Gee.

This was the most notably boring job in the facility, and 8XF was the most impatient Amethyst in her column. If it weren’t for her partner Bee’s sense of humor, she would have dissipated from idleness. While 8XF was struggling to stay in line, Bee was busy humming some ridiculous (and mildly inappropriate) marching tune. If she kept it up, 8XF may be compelled to sing along, off-key and far too loud, not that she cared.

Just as the both of them were beginning to giggle at the implied lyrics, however, they were interrupted by a sufferingly patient “ehem.”

Jumping to attention, they nodded at the willowy pink gem before them, with Holly hot on her heels. 8XF made to respond, remembered her orders, and clamped her mouth shut tighter as Bee snorted into her shoulder. Composing herself for a moment, she stated in her most polite voice, “welcome to Pink Diamond’s human menagerie. You must be Pink Spinel.”

She nodded once, smiling mirthlessly in acknowledgement. “I am a Pink Spinel. You are her soldiers, yes? From the planet Earth?”

They shifted uncomfortably. “Two of them, yeah.”

It sounded as if she made a tiny “harrumph” at the answer, but they weren’t quite sure. Sometimes the Pink diplomats were worse than Blue’s, acting as if the entire war and its outcome was their fault while still maintaining a quietly pleasant front. The Quartzes hated feeling uncomfortable around gems that served their own fallen Diamond dutifully, for possibly much longer than they had, but the sting of the diplomats’ reactions made it hard to overlook.

And then there was Holly.

“No fraternizing with the guests!” she hissed irritably as she marched up the steps, taking the Spinel by the elbow and guiding her towards the door. “Right this way, Pink. What a honor it is for you to visit our humble facility.”

The two soldiers saluted, with a murmured “yes, Holly Blue Agate” from 8XF and a sullen “I was only greeting her nicely” from Bee. Holly, of course, responded with a cuff to the side of the head and an apology to Spinel for the Amethyst’s insubordination. The Spinel, in the airy, polite fashion of Pink Diamond’s court, was inclined to disagree, however much she believed otherwise. Her eyes flickered to one Amethyst and then the other, the smile still playing on her lips with disapproval in her eyes. 8XF chomped down harder to keep from groaning.

No sooner had to door closed behind the two gems that there came a great crashing sound, followed by the sound of voices, with Holly’s shrill, indignant screech piercing through the dissonance. Spinel’s personal pilot, her co-pilot, and her guard glanced up at the noise in alarm, and the two Quartzes exchanged a glance, unsure of how to proceed. Either the station was under siege by some rebel force—and they couldn’t help but think of the Crystal Gems at that moment—or some of their own troops had finally snapped, which was the much more likely option.

They waved off the advances of the gems below, summoned their weapons, punched in the code to the sliding doors, and burst onto the scene.

It was a mess. Three Amethysts, all from the older sections of Prime, were tearing into each other as viscously as if they were in the midst of a battlefield. Their respective columns surrounded them, either egging them on or urging them to stop at once. Holly was hurling abuse at them, making every threat that she could conceive, with the Spinel pressed against the wall behind her, clutching at her robes frightfully. The panels behind the Amethysts had been ripped off the wall in the struggle, leaving an ugly, gaping hole in the wall that looked into the adjacent hallway.

Not wanting to get in the way of Holly’s wrath, 8XF and Bee moved to either side of the stricken Spinel and grasped both of her arms, guiding her away from the brawling gems. Despite her height, she was incredibly easy to move, and they hoped to the stars that she wouldn’t faint in their care, further eliciting Holly’s anger.

“ENOUGH!” Holly yanked her whip from her gem and slashed at the Amethysts furiously. 8XF gripped Spinel’s arm harder and turned her, as best she could, away from the violence.

The three Quartzes convulsed painfully and fell apart, but Holly wasn’t finished with them yet. She slashed, again and again, at both the three gems before her and their comrades, ensuring that she made her message clear: this is what happens when you step out of line.

Up until that moment, Holly had merely threatened them with her whip and her authority. They rarely tested her patience enough to infuriate her, and their squabbles always occurred in the confines of their barracks, where she rarely went. This was her shining moment to demonstrate what she could really do. She wasn’t the most intimidating Agate they had ever come across, but she was certainly proficient at discipline. If her authority hadn’t dissuaded them from wrongdoing before, this experience was certainly a determining factor.

Finally, the three Amethysts retreated back into their gemstones in an explosion of purple smoke. Gathering up the belligerent gems in one hand and gripping her whip in the other, Holly motioned sharply for the others to follow her to her office. “Watch over Pink Spinel until I return,” she commanded of 8XF and Bee, glaring as if they had purposely allowed this to happen.

They guided Spinel back into the docking bay to reassure her party that their mistress hadn’t been damaged. Gently, they lowered her onto the top step and moved back to their posts, feeling apprehensive of the entire situation.

“How is it that a being so kind could have been defended by gems so violent?” Spinel asked brokenly, staring at her hands. “Beings from her own colony, at each other’s gems.”

Neither soldier answered, knowing that this diplomat could scarcely imagine what they had endured, the tragedy they had faced, nor did she care about their strife. They were sorry that she had been given such a fright, but they couldn’t say that the event surprised them at all.

 

Word spread quickly and in pieces, depending on who knew what. Over 30 Amethysts went missing at once without a peep out of Holly. Some said that they heard a commotion. Others knew that there was trouble brewing among some of the older soldiers.

As far as they could put together, the squabble had started over the same tired drama. One of the belligerents had been very vocal in her resentment of the current position and of Blue Diamond. Another, fearing for her life by association with said soldier, decided to be equally as vocal in denouncing her views. They had been going back and forth for months, pitting their entire teams against each other. Although the arguing hadn’t initially started with them, they were the main source of stress at that moment, and everyone was aware of what was going on, except Holly. Even the most loyal of gems knew to hide all of their personal goings-on from Holly.

With the added knowledge of the fight from 8XF and 8XB—as graphic as they could make it without going too over the top—they learned that a third from the complainer’s group had jumped into the fight to break it up, but instead became another target. And, of course, all three of them were eventually the target for Holly’s whip. If they hadn’t been witness to the spectacle, the theories would have flown wildly from all of them turning traitor and escaping to Holly crushing every single one of them beneath her gaudy boots on sight.

Their prolonged absence made the others quite nervous. After the incident, however, the conspiracy theories and fighting had ceased. That wasn’t to say that the suspicions were altogether gone from the group, it would take many years for that to fade away, but they had come to realize that fighting would not make matters any better. Besides, in a place as prison-like as the menagerie, the would-be dissenters were already in the right place; they didn’t even know about the Rose Quartzes imprisoned within the facility.

And yet, none of this was the remarkable part of the story.

After a few weeks of apprehension, the missing Amethysts unceremoniously returned to their regular duties, silent and obedient. After being berated within an inch of their lives, Holly personally locked them each of them into their own, sensory-depriving cell. For reasons unknown, they had been expecting something crueler and more severe coming from Holly, but it seemed that she was content with following protocol this time around. Even more astounding, however, was that none of them were reported to Blue Diamond. A few ventured to hope that maybe, just maybe, Holly had the tiniest bit of pity for them. Or maybe she feared that their behavior may reflect poorly on her.

Either way, the current problem Amethysts were back and no longer problems, and things had calmed down significantly. For the first time since they had arrived at the facility years before, things were finally beginning to look up for the Earthling Quartzes, even after this rocky beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's got two thumbs and a new chapter? This girl! I've been feeling particularly writey, so here is the next chapter, only a couple days after the last one (don't get used to it)! In case it wasn't obvious, I made Sharky 8XF based on how I decided to characterize this group of Amethysts in chapter 2. She most certainly would bite a Crystal Gem with absolutely no remorse. And yes, I couldn't resist the pun in the end. Thanks for reading!


	5. A Little Thing Called Grief

“How come we never knew any of this stuff about humans?” 8XJ asked, scrolling obsessively through the countless logs on humankind the Calcites had collected over a couple thousand years of research. “You’d think we came straight from Homeworld and not from Earth. They aren’t made in the ground? Wild.”

8XJ, Cee, and Eye were assigned to watch over the humans as they went about their day within the enclosure, little blue and white dots prancing between the green trees. They peered through the faceted one-way window that wrapped around the observation room. At intervals, there was projected a magnified image, a better representation of what was going on.

The opinions on this occupation were mixed among the Amethysts, ranging from interesting to boring to downright offensive. Some felt it was beneath them, when they could be defending Homeworld as they were intended to, while others felt incompetent outside their skillset, given a set of signs to look for without having the slightest clue as to what they meant. To all, it felt as if Holly was grasping at straws to keep them busy under the guise of taking up a little of the Calcites’ workload, so that they may focus more on the health and wellness of the humans and less on their daily pursuits. In a way, all of this was true.

For 8XJ, it was the best part of their occupation at the menagerie, and one of the only things—besides her sisters—that kept her sane.

“I don’t think any organics are made in the ground, Jay,” Cee replied, squinting out the large viewing windows at the tiny impression of humans moving about below. Her disinterest in organics was no secret.

Eye hummed pensively beside her. “Plants come out of the ground,” she reasoned, glancing appealingly at 8XJ.

“Yes, humans are better than plants!” 8XJ exclaimed fondly, “but their form of production is…weird.” She pulled a face at the words and diagrams that scrolled across the screen, both disgusted and intrigued.

“You sure that’s not the Rose Quartz inclusion talking?” Cee asked meanly.

8XJ’s face grew hot in embarrassment as she pulled the read-out screens higher, burying her face among them. Cee wasn’t the nicest out of the group, but that was crossing a line. She was rarely bothered by what others had to say about her, but comparing her to the most infamous criminal in Homeworld’s history, whether the assumption was true or not, hurt more than any insult that could have thrown her way.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t arouse the same amount of interest she had felt a moment earlier. She could hardly focus on the words anymore, especially now that it had been deemed inappropriate for her to have an interest. Maybe she was just being melodramatic…or _maybe_ Cee was being dumb for no reason.

8XJ sighed, abandoning her reading in favor of looking out the window, pointedly placing Eye between herself and Cee. Eye elbowed her in the side, pointing towards the gathered humans eating their third meal, but it was one human in particular that she was interested in.

“Look, there’s Bee-Eight!” Eye cried.

All thought of her previous grievances were momentarily forgotten at the sight of her favorite human, in all their silver-haired glory in the middle of the group. She bounced on her toes excitedly, peering at the enhanced image.

Bee-Eight was born the year that the Quartzes arrived at the facility, and was the first human baby that 8XJ had ever seen. Since the moment she saw the small, squishy thing, she became completely invested in their life. She insisted on telling everyone when they began to toddle around and when they started eating solid food with the other humans. When they hit a growth spurt, she was beside herself with joy, squealing “look how tall Bee-Eight is!” to anyone within earshot every couple of months. She knew exactly who they would be choosened with when the time came, and she had quickly developed an attachment to their three children.

At 95, Bee-Eight was an old human…healthy, but old. No one had the heart to tell 8XJ that she should distance herself before she got hurt, seeing how excited she was. In these trying times, adjusting to this new way of life, they all needed a little joy but, joy or not, humans didn’t live indefinitely like gems.

“Hello? Someone answer!” Came a voice from the terminal.

“I got it,” Cee stated, glancing apologetically at 8XJ, who pursed her lips in response. Sighing, Cee clicked on the speaker and lifted the screen higher, so that she was speaking down to the Blue Calcite who was calling.

“Ah, there you are,” the Calcite stated, “Amethyst 8XC, yes?”

“That’s me,” Cee replied sheepishly. “What’s the problem?”

Calcite flicked through a document off-screen. “I need you to retrieve human…Bee-Eight from Tribe 4 during the night cycle. Administer the strongest sedative.”

“Why’s that?” 8XJ asked, sauntering up to the terminal at the mention of the human.

Calcite looked at her like she was stupid, refused to answer her question, and turned to address Cee once more. “Both Tribe 4 and the neighboring Tribe 3 have been notified and Little Voice has explained the situation as delicately as possible. Although the humans are quite attached to this one, the loss should not cause a disturbance. Still, I would suggest keeping an eye on them for the next few cycles and report any unusual behavior.”

“What do you mean?” 8XJ pressed, feeling suddenly anxious.

“I can’t deal with this right now,” Calcite muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Will one of you explain? I need to go.”

“Of course, Calcite,” Cee answered quickly, much to 8XJ’s irritation. “I know where to send the drone.”

With that, the call ended. 8XJ looked from Eye, who was trying her hardest to stay out of the conversation, to Cee, who knew that there was no way of getting out of this. A few of the Amethysts near them, who had heard what was being said, cast sympathetic glances in their direction. 8XJ felt her own frustration mounting, unwilling to accept what she knew was going on.

“Hey, Jay, let’s talk,” Cee said calmly, coddling her. 8XJ slapped her hand away.

“There’s nothing wrong with Bee-Eight,” she argued, striding towards the window and looking down at the grinning, wrinkled figure, surrounded by the smiling faces of their tribe, their loved ones. “Look, all happy, no serious health concerns. There’s no reason to remove them!”

“Look, I’m really sorry about before,” Cee replied desperately. “It’s great that you’re so passionate about humans. I mean, working with them all the time, it’s real helpful if you like what you’re doing. But you have to understand-”

“They aren’t dying!”

“They will,” Cee insisted. “We can’t leave the humans in there to die of natural causes, Jay, you know this. It would only upset the other humans if they happened to see the body.”

“They aren’t dying…” She felt a great sinking feeling in the pit of her being, and she suddenly wished to be back in her hole in Prime, blissfully unaware of the demise all humans must suffer. This had to be the saddest she’d felt since Pink Diamond’s shattering.

Cee patted her shoulder, attempting to comfort her. “It has to be done, Jay.”

But 8XJ was inconsolable. She spent the rest of the shift sobbing, only pulling it together when Holly walked through to check on them. As soon as she clip-clopped away, 8XJ was right back to it, uncaring of what the others thought of her display. Eye and Cee tried to multitask: monitoring, removing Bee-Eight from the enclosure and sending their sleeping form over to the Calcite’s side of the facility, and pulling 8XJ’s weight.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was that she had known all of this would happen. She herself had sent a sleeping human or two off to their end to be clinically euthanized. She knew that this was the end that all humans at the facility would experience, dreaming peacefully and passing painlessly, and she had still allowed herself to get attached to one of them. Perhaps, in a way, clinging to this human had been her poorly executed coping mechanism.

“Jay, one last look?” Cee asked quietly, nudging her prostrate body.

8XJ looked up, sniffling and bleary-eyed, to find that the bright lights in the observation room had turned on and the artificial sky outside was dark. The time had come. Nodding dismally, she stood and looked out the window at the human-sized drone hovering in the distance. There they were, Bee-Eight, hands folded nicely across their chest and a small smile playing on their lips.

8XJ felt new tears rolling down her face at the sight of such a serene figure. She had never known that a Quartz could be so moved by an image, other than that of her Diamond, until that moment. Eye pulled her into a hug, wiping 8XJ’s face the heel of her palm, as Cee took control of the drone. A few of the other Amethysts snuck a peek at the human as well, whispering all that they knew about the insignificant human. Grief, as it turned out, was contagious.

Cee looked back expectantly. With a heavy heart, 8XJ looked away from the screen. She didn’t look as the drone zoomed across the darkened roof of the enclosure, nor when it disappeared through the semi-permeable wall. They were gone.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Eye soothed. “There’s plenty of humans to care about here, and plenty more where that came from. I’m sure the Calcites wouldn’t mind sharing the love.”

“You think the Calcites actually love the humans?” 8XJ asked, her voice diminished to a croak.

Eye chuckled. “They oughta, spending all that time caring for them from the moment they’re conceived to the day they die. I’ll bet they have a real hard time with this stuff.”

“They’re probably used to it by now,” Cee reasoned. “You’re just new to it, is all.”

“You are, too.”

“I’m not as invested in it as you are, and that’s fine.” Cee smiled sadly. “I’ve seen more gems die than humans, to be honest. I feel more invested in that.”

A few other Amethysts murmured their agreement.

8XJ wanted to distance herself from the humans as much as possible to protect herself from feeling this way, but there was still that small part of her that couldn’t help but care for them. Perhaps she did have a little Rose Quartz in her. If she had the kind, compassionate part of a Rose Quartz, there’s no way that could be seen as a bad thing, right? She wasn’t going to dwell on it, for fear of losing her sanity to another foe, other than grief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably thinking too hard about this, but I think it would be really interesting if the show talked about gems with inclusions--little bits of other gems stuck in them--and how that would affect their personalities. I've also been sitting on this idea of how they would handle human death at the zoo. The humans don't seem to understand the idea of emotional (or physical hurt), so I figured that anything that involves hurting (like death or giving birth or whatever), they just whisk the humans away while they're sleeping before the event happens and keep them sedated the entire time the humans are out of the enclosure. This also solves the conundrum of the door into the enclosure only being opened once (instead of every time there's a medical problem). On another note, I don't like the sound of the "human disposal chute" Holly was talking about. Anyways, thanks for reading! Now that I've gotten through these initial struggles, I'm going to do much greater time jumps.


	6. Beta Reunion

Carnelian was, once again, the only Beta in the barracks.

Going weeks, even months, on end without seeing a single Beta either on the job or off made her existence at the station a nightmare, and her main occupation didn’t make matters any better. Being the only gem in the station—on their side, at least—who could fit within the vents left her with the task of repairing anything that couldn’t be reached from a control panel. She had spent most of her time alone in this environment, risking her gem over and over again trying to navigate it.

Consequently, she spent less and less time with those who actually mattered to her: The Betas and her few friends from Prime. She missed Skinny most of all, though, talking to her, seeing her, hearing her smooth voice telling her that everything was alright. While Skinny had grown into a competent leader, she wasn’t very good a multitasking as friend, and maybe more…

No, that track of thought led to things Carnelian wasn’t prepared to deal with. Shaking her head, she resolved to file that away somewhere deep within the recesses of her mind to be puzzled out later, or not at all. That would be better.

“What’s on your mind, Red?” The lone, old Amethyst she had met on the escape pod asked. Her full name was Amethyst 5F2L cut 2XO, from an older section of Prime, but most referred to her as Oldie for simplicity’s sake. It was still debatable who was the oldest of the remaining Primes, but she was certainly a viable candidate.

Carnelian hid her face in her shoulder as her face flamed in embarrassment. “Nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Oldie pressed, poking the bottom of Carnelian’s foot from the hole below hers. Carnelian always stayed in the higher holes when she wasn’t feeling chatty. “Miss your kindergarten mates?” She guessed.

Carnelian sighed loudly, laying back in her hole. “There’s tons of Amethysts and a handful of Jaspers, but there’s only one me,” she replied, frowning deeply to herself. “We lost all the Beta Carnelians early on, and now I feel like I’m losing the Jaspers, too. It’s been months since I’ve seen any of them.” She felt that, if she didn’t see someone soon, she was going to lose her mind.

“You’ll see them again, eventually.”

Carnelian felt herself grow frustrated. She didn’t want to lose her temper at Oldie, who had been through something similar to her and just as traumatizing, but her passiveness was grating. Trying to be satisfied with what she got, despite the circumstances, may have worked for Oldie, but Carnelian didn’t survive against all odds all of those years in Beta by being a pushover. She functioned on rage and overwhelming, reckless bravery alone.

Growing tired of wallowing in her own self-pity, Carnelian sat up with new determination, something she hadn’t felt in a while. “Eventually? I’m gonna see them right now! Better yet, we’re gonna have a big Beta reunion, even if I have to drag them together myself!” She leapt from the hole with a thump, feeling suddenly empowered.

Oldie looked down at the smaller gem amusedly, as if she had known she would come to this conclusion. However, she simply warned, “better cool down before you go, Red,” patting her on the head rapidly. Lo and behold, Carnelian could see plum colored sparks floating away from her hair. “Don’t wanna burn the place down.”

Carnelian smirked at Oldie, a plan beginning to take shape in her mind even as she walked out of the barracks. She had to be crafty if she didn’t want to be raise suspicions, and her plans quickly evolved into a whole one-gem military operation. It shouldn’t have been so hard just to see her kindergarten mates who worked in the same facility, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

 _At least Holly always has her dumb nose stuck way up in the air,_ Carnelian thought _, ‘cept when someone important wants to talk to her._ Carnelian, being the least significant of the Betas, was easily missed. All she had to do was sneak through the corridors and-

“You, Beta!” She heard the shrill, angry Agate voice behind her and felt all her resolve vanish. Cursing herself, Holly, and the entire situation thoroughly, she turned to face her commander, arranging her face in a way that didn’t look suspicious. She was pretty sure that every expression she made looked stupid to Holly, but better to be safe than sorry.

There, beside Holly, was a visitor from Blue Diamond’s court, as the Pink gems had become increasingly scarce. She was a little bigger than a Lapis, yet she still insisted on fluttering around beside Holly on watery wings, raising herself just about the Agate’s head. Of course Holly would call her out at that moment; the Betas were supposed to be out of sight when there were visiting aristocrats. Indeed, the gem looked down at the small quartz in disdain, exuding that same grating personality that Holly possessed. Carnelian resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at the both of them. _She_ was more mature than that.

She made the customary Diamond salute, looking up at Holly in defiance. “Yes, Holly?” she replied sweetly.

Holly narrowed her eyes. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uhhh…”

“Nevermind, I don’t have time for this,” Holly sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Go…scrub the fans in sector three.”

“But, I just cleaned-”

“Now!”

“Yes, Holly,” she replied tensely, growing impatient.

The blue gem rolled her eyes. “Are all of your soldiers so defective?” She whispered loudly behind her palm.

The comment appeared to be a slap to the face for Holly Blue, and Carnelian could have sworn she saw her cheeks color in embarrassment. The whole unpleasant situation was suddenly worth the interruption, if only to see Holly brought down a couple pegs. To her credit, however, she didn’t outright confirm or deny the accusation. Agreeing would reflect poorly on her position, but denying the fact that they were the rowdiest, most uncultured lot of Quartzes she had ever commanded would count as the greatest compliment she had ever bestowed on the soldiers, and that was something she simply could not do.

Keeping her composure as best as she could, with a slight twitch in her left eye, Holly replied, “they are all here to honor Pink Diamond’s memory and maintain the facility, nothing more or less. You need not worry yourself over these soldiers.”

With one last stern look at Carnelian, Holly and the guest marched away. At least she had a direction to go in, now, in the facility that was simultaneously enormous and suffocatingly small.

 

“Ow! Watch it!” Tawny barked, clutching the gem on her chest in pain.

Sandy, a Beta who was the exact color and pattern of the red sandstone of their kindergarten, grumbled irritably as she steadied her unwieldy apparatus. “Well, if you weren’t always getting in the way, I wouldn’t have hit you. Move!”

“Hey, no more fighting,” Split interjected. “Remember what Skinny said.” After her first attempt at conflict resolution failed and she had a good talk with Elle, Skinny went back to talk to the fighting Betas and chatted about what it meant to be a team. That moment stuck with Split as the time that they became a unit again, more or less, and she used the idea of their team as a crutch, despite the fact that they hardly cared to interact with one another. They didn’t clump together like the Amethysts.

“When was the last time we saw Skinny, anyway?” Tawny complained dejectedly. “What’s the use of having a leader if she can’t be here to tell us to knock it off?”

They could all feel the change that was being thrust upon them. There was no team besides their occupation under Blue Diamond and Holly. While it should have made the soldiers feel as if they were a part of something bigger, something integrally important to Homeworld (despite the fact that they weren’t), all it succeeded in doing was erasing the foundation that all of them were built on. Earth was no longer their concern, Prime and Beta were their origins and nothing more.

It was becoming more and more clear that Homeworld had simply dumped them at that station with no intention of rebuilding the traumatized, Diamond-less Quartzes, thus they had to find ways of doing this themselves. They salvaged what they could—starting from the ground up in many cases, as Amethysts broke ties with their column mates—and made do.

“What is she supposed to do?” Sandy asked. “I mean…what are we supposed to do?!”

As if in answer, they heard a clanging from somewhere in the walls. All three gems turned to look at one another, and then at the source of the noise, through the panel on the far wall. They weren’t sure what was going on, but instinct urged them to tense up for a fight.

The panel popped from the wall easily and out came a familiar gem, as the others dissolved into humored chuckles.

“Hey, Runt, what’re you doing here?” Split asked, helping Carnelian from her perch.

Carnelian looked around conspiratorially, motioned for the three gems to come in closer, and whispered, “Holly been here yet?”

“A little while ago, yeah,” Sandy replied, rubbing the pale orange markings on her forearm. “Barged in here telling us to stay put and not bother that Angelite. Why?”

“What are you up to?” Split added with a mischievous grin on her face.

With her audience properly intrigued, Carnelian answered, “Nothing much, I’m just taking matters into my own hands. I’m trying to get us Betas all together. Where’s Skinny and the others?”

They stared at her as if she were speaking another language. Carnelian knew that they wouldn’t be too keen on defying orders—even though she wasn’t asking them to shirk their responsibilities at all—but she hoped that the need for validation would be too tempting to pass up. Thankfully, they were quick to snap out of it, as they pooled together their knowledge and gave Carnelian the map she needed.

“The triplets are together in sector five with Stripes and Blank,” Tawny stated, all but forgetting about the pain in her gem.

“Cleft and Ring are in sector 1, topside, pretty sure,” Sandy added, tapping her chin pensively. “Like, on top of the facility, doing the usual maintenance. Exxes was fixing a drone at the observation deck the last time I saw her, but I’ll bet Holly ran her out.”

“Ray and Sun were stuck with disposal duty,” Split sighed, shaking her head sadly. “We never get the chance to really get attached to the humans, so it feels so wrong only dealing with their dead bodies.” She shivered at the thought. Jaspers weren’t known to be squeamish or empathetic, but these Jaspers were too acquainted with death to take it lightly.

“We can’t just…leave them, though.” Sandy scrunched her face in discomfort. “But I get it. At least they get along really well.”

“Where’s Skinny?” Carnelian insisted, running on a tight schedule. She tried to quell the little flutter she felt in her chest at the thought of seeing her best friend again.

To her dismay, Tawny shrugged, gazing at her sympathetically. “Not sure. I heard that Holly learned Skinny was getting pretty good with tech stuff, so she’s been having her install a bunch of new junk around the facility. I haven’t seen her in a couple weeks.” The others agreed.

“Okay,” Carnelian replied, disappointed. “I’ll try the others.” Then, in a flash, she clamored back into the ductwork to continue her journey. “Sneak off to the barracks when you finish up. The one no one else goes to!” She called over her shoulder.

“Good luck!” Split called back as she replaced the panel.

 

Carnelian crawled from the maze of vents a while later, feeling mostly triumphant with a bit of frustration. She resorted to counting on her fingers, trying to take stock of the Betas she had seen over and over again. She had managed to find all of them in or around the specified places. All of them agreed to do what she asked, more or less, and none knew where Skinny was.

Obviously, hiding wasn’t helping in her pursuits. If she wanted to do this in a timely manner without arising Holly’s suspicions, she had to find Skinny soon.

Although she wasn’t as familiar with the halls as she was with the inner workings of the facility, Carnelian decided to sneak around one last time before meeting the others. She darted from one small corridor to another and asked any passing Amethysts if they had spotted the lithe gem anywhere, to which she got the same answer as before. No one had seen her.

She was beginning to worry. The Betas were usually easy to spot in a crowd, being so brightly colored, and Skinny was so tall she had to duck a little going through some doorways. Besides, Carnelian had spent so much time with her that she would be able to sense when Skinny was close, yet she couldn’t find anything. She didn’t want to keep the others waiting, when they were also taking a risk to see one another again, but she didn’t want to leave this mystery unsolved.

“Carnie?”

So engulfed was she in her worries, she almost didn’t hear the familiar, smooth voice call her. It took her a moment to comprehend what she was hearing, but when it finally hit her, she instantly turned and barreled into Skinny.

Skinny let out a pitiful yelp as Carnelian, ever unaware of her own strength, toppled her forcefully. She had a good sense of humor, so it hardly bothered her, and soon they had dissolved into laughing, with Carnelian clinging to her. It was such a simple, comforting moment that she didn’t want to let go, but she knew that Skinny tired of physical contact after a while—it took much longer than the other Jaspers, but she still wasn’t the touchy-feely type—and she didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

Needlessly smoothing her perpetually wild hair, Skinny grinned at Carnelian warmly. “What’s the big idea, huh? Trying to become alpha defect after all these years, or are you just happy to see me?”

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Carnelian cried. “No one knew where you were and apparently it’s been weeks since anyone’s seen you and-”

“Hey, hey, calm down,” Skinny replied. “Holly just had me install a bunch of stuff for the Calcites. Not their area of expertise.”

“It’s not yours, either,” Carnelian pointed out.

Skinny grimaced. “It wasn’t, but I’m adaptable. I think she just put me over there because I’m the least likely to cause trouble.” Her face relaxed again into a sly grin. “The Amethysts should never be allowed over there, though.”

“Why’s that?”

“They wouldn’t be able to leave those poor Calcites alone,” Skinny chuckled. “I’m no Amethyst, but I can definitely tell they have a type.”

Carnelian punched her arm playfully. “What if Holly hears you talking like that?!” She scolded.

“I think she’d be more peeved by the fact that we’re on the floor doing nothing,” Skinny replied lightly. “But I know that’s not why you’ve been looking for me.”

For a moment, Carnelian’s mind drew a blank. “Oh…oh! Yeah! Look,” she stood up, offering her hand. “It’s been way too long, Skinny. It’s kinda hard being a team if we only ever see each other a few times a year, and never all at once. I get separated from the group more than anyone, too. I just want all of us to be together for a little bit, if that’s alright with you.”

Skinny sat up taller, not wanting to choose that moment to tower over the small gem at her full height. “Of course it’s alright with me!” Skinny insisted.

“I figured,” Carnelian agreed sheepishly. “I’ve been going around and asking the others, and they all agreed to meet up real quick. Are…are you busy?”

“I just finished up.” Skinny quickly pulled herself up, gripping Carnelian’s hand. “Lead the way, before Holly tries to give us something else to do!”

Not one to complain with such logic, Carnelian complied.

When the two gems burst into the unused barracks, they were met by a gratifying sight: all of the Betas, together. Jaspers weren’t known for being social gems, and thus they found the others quietly chatting rather than rough-housing and paling around like the Amethysts, but that was fine. It was less noise to make Holly suspicious.

“Hey, you found her!” Split exclaimed, slapping Skinny on the back.

“Oof!” Skinny grunted at the impact. “Yup, she found me. I can’t believe you did this, Carn.” She grinned down at Carnelian once more, leaning her forearms against her head. “I should relinquish my leadership position to you, just for this.”

“No way!” Carnelian cried. “No offense, but your job sucks. You can keep it.”

“Darn,” Skinny replied, snapping her fingers. “Oh well, guess I’m stuck with it.”

No one knew how long they had been in the barracks before Skinny and Carnelian arrived, and no one knew when they should leave. They all decided that they would take their chances, for the sake of getting some quality time and a little rest. They sat together in the middle of the barracks, talking about everything and nothing in particular. Everyone agreed that Carnelian as the hero of the day, and that they should do this more often.

Carnelian was just happy to have her family around her once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really love Carnelian with all my heart and I want her to be happy (*whispers* with Skinny). Be prepared for shipping ahead in the next two chapters, both in the Primes and the Betas. Pure fluff with a side of plot! Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Giving the Betas original names it really hard, guys. I borrowed Cleft and Tawny from BetaQuartz! Go read Tales From Beta if you haven't already, as well as all her other fics!


	7. Pink Calcite

8XC was in so much trouble, and it was her own fault. It was always, ALWAYS her own fault.

It all started with her attitude, which always seemed to break through her wall of military discipline (which wasn’t that developed in the first place) at the worst of times. She was rudely torn away from her scheduled break time and given an assignment, she mouthed off to Holly, Holly slapped her across the face and told her that insubordination was not to be tolerated. Thoroughly snared in her own rebellion, 8XC made the grave error of informing Holly that she “hits like a Pearl,” despite the fact that the impact sent her reeling against the wall the corridor.

Holly turned a deep shade of blue, her face contorted in rage as she snatched 8XC by her hair and dragged her in the direction of her office. This was not the first time this had happened, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

8XC could still feel the sting of electricity from her whip coursing through her shoulders and behind the gem on the back of her neck long after the deed had been done.

Holly gave her the assignment anyway, begrudgingly this time. Then, she disappeared and reappeared with Bee, who grimaced at 8XC’s situation, knowing that to try to help her up would only lead to trouble for herself. The thought that Holly must care enough about them to remember who was from which column, thus bringing in the one gem that 8XC could actually work well with, crossed her mind for a moment, but she was too peeved to give Holly any credit, if that’s what it could be called.

“The head Calcite has asked for extra muscle to help make negotiations,” Holly explained, acting as if she were withholding the finer details instead of admitting that she didn’t know them herself. “You two will go.”

Who were they to complain? “Yes, Holly Blue Agate,” they replied formally with arms crossed in salute. 8XC was still hunched in pain. Holly seemed to take a little joy in seeing it; at least, that was what her addled mind told her.

Holly left the two alone in the quiet hallway beyond the door leading to the Calcites’ domain. No sooner had the automatic lock kicked in that the sound of sprinting feet suddenly broke the silence, and one of the Calcites sprinted around the corner.

The Blue Calcites were stranger than they had imagined. This one’s arms had odd, mechanical appendages that started at the elbow and encased the entire lower part of the limbs, something the Era 1 quartzes had never seen before, isolated in the middle of space. Pale blue cylinders floated away from the devices, taking the vague appearance of fingers. She stopped in front of the soldiers at that moment, flustered and anxious with fingers flying every which way, only to return to their central point.

“Thank the Diamonds for a station full of Quartzes!” she sighed right off the bat. “Let me explain the situation.” She inhaled unnecessarily—no doubt influenced by working with humans—and continued in a rush. “Homeworld has been increasingly inconsistent in shipping organic matter to be converted into raw nutrients which is then infused into simulated fauna for the humans to consume, and the humans eat so very often, you wouldn’t believe it. I mean, I’m sure you would, as you also watch over them, but it’s quite a lot! So, as you can imagine, it runs out quickly and we’ve been trying to contact them—our suppliers, I mean—about the matter, but no one is answering, so-”

“So, you took matters into your own hands?” 8XC had guessed.

“We did what we had to do,” the Calcite replied evenly, unfazed. “We contacted a…third party, not the most trustworthy bunch, and we need you to make sure that nothing goes awry. Understand?”

“Of course!” Bee insisted before 8XC could reply. “Just tell us what to do.”

Calcite smiled, clapping her metallic appendages together. “Follow me.”

Skinny, in all her annoying glory, refused to reveal what it was like on the other side of the station. She was their only link to information, being the only Quartz of their lot to be allowed access, but Skinny loved to watch the Amethysts squirm. She was as nice as Jaspers come, but she had a cruel streak, at least to the snubbed, curious Primes. She did reveal one thing, however…

“Skinny was right,” Bee whispered behind her hand to 8XC, chuckling. “These Calcites _are_ cuter in person.”

“Their arm things look weird,” 8XC replied, too cool to agree. Besides, after all the drama involving Holly, blue wasn’t exactly an appealing color to her.

With the increasingly lack of visitors, their side of the menagerie was beginning to feel barren and boring, but the Calcites’ domain was abuzz with activity. They had assumed that gems did more for the humans than the Quartzes ever could, but they could have never imagined they would be this busy. They weren’t sure where to look first, but their guide made short work of that, ushering them towards an official set of doors at the other end of the facility.

“No time to sight-see, Amethysts, come now,” she urged, hastily swiping in the code, failing, then retrying before the door finally opened, revealing another spacecraft hangar. It was nearly identical to the one on their side, but far less showy. This one was for operational purposes only, not meant for pleasure-seeking aristocrats to see.

A foreign vessel was docked just within the airlock, with even more foreign passengers exiting from its interior. Not only were the Calcites dealing with beings outside of Homeworld’s authority—she wasn’t even sure that was legal—they weren’t even dealing with other gems. These beings were, without a shadow of a doubt, organic.

This was going to be interesting.

Bee made a point of cutting in front of her, much to 8XC’s irritation and relief. Bee was the more negotiable of the two, and she was certainly the nicest, but 8XC still didn’t feel right about the situation. She was far from a legalist, but this blatantly went against her training.

“Don’t anger them!” Calcite fretted. “Please, we desperately need this. The humans—”

“Yeah, yeah, the humans. We know!” 8XC snapped. “Let’s just do this and be done with it.” She stalked off ahead of Bee before anyone could reprimand her.

The organics looked up as she approached, leering at her as if they weren’t terrified for their lives. She was a whole head and shoulders taller than the tallest of the bunch, and Bee, as much as she hated to admit it, was even taller than her. Of course, even a single Ruby could have taken all of them at once, she was sure of it, but they stood no chance against two fully trained Quartz soldiers.

Bee had raced up behind her, pinching her tense cheek hard. “Fix your attitude, Cee!” she whispered harshly, patting her cheek more gently to show that she wasn’t completely serious.

8XC slapped her hand away.

“Lighten up,” Bee sighed dejectedly. “At least let me do the talking.”

“Whatever.”

Until this moment, things had gone smoothly for 8XC. Needless to say, it went downhill from there.

Bee greeted the organics and they responded in a tongue that was as foreign as the rest of them, but gems were uniquely gifted in many things, language being one of them. Although it sounded strange, they could understand every word, and the Quartzes responses were equally understandable. There were perks to being entities made from light energy.

The organics asked for payment, and the timid Calcite behind her answered meekly, “we can give you high-quality transportation, Homeworld made.”

The leader of their group glanced at their dented vessel, then towards the ship that Calcite gestured to from behind the Quartzes. It was one of those small, red vessels that had arrived from Homeworld a couple hundred years back. “Roaming Eyes” were what they were called, fancy, dimension-bending ships that were larger on the inside than on the outside. They had many uses, but their primary function was to track and apprehend, hence the name. It was a precaution, a means of self-sufficiency, just another way that Homeworld wanted to leave them to their own devices.

And she wanted to give one away to these low-life organics.

The leader shook his head. “Too small,” he declared.

“On the outside!” Calcite countered, now digging her mechanical fingers into the back of Bee’s uniform, pressing fully against her back. “If you would just let me show—"

“No deal,” the leader replied. His team quietly agreed behind him.

“Please!” Calcite begged. “We have no other means of feeding our humans!”

“I need to feed my team, or have you immortals forgotten?” He paced closer, resting his hand on his hip, something under his shirt. This was getting ridiculous. “That ship is a novelty and nothing more to my people. I need something I can sell.”

The gems, who had no need for, and therefore no concept of, capitalism, stared at the organic aliens in confusion.

“But perhaps,” the leader mused, glancing appraisingly at Bee and them 8XC, “we can exchange goods for service.”

“What do you mean?” Bee asked wearily, glaring daggers.

The leader smiled smugly. “Join my team and be an intimating addition. I’ll give you half my wears for one, and all for both. Deal?”

8XC couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She _could not_ believe what she was hearing. All the pent-up aggression that had been collected all day was threatening to burst forth, directed towards this puny, self-important organic. Her palms curled into fists, hands shaking with anticipation. To make matters worse, the expression on the leader’s face was just begging to be punched.

And of course, Bee stepped in at the right moment to stop her.

“Why don’t you go take care of the other thing, huh?” She lied. “I think I’ve got this.”

The Calcite glanced fearfully between all of the entities in the area, clinging even harder to Bee’s back. 8XC blanched, not expecting the premature dismissal, then stormed from the hangar in anger. She heard Bee call a hasty apology, but she was too frustrated to respond.

She marched down corridor after corridor, uncaring of the gems at work who had to dive out of her way. All she cared about was the tightness in her chest and pounding in her ears, her troubles finally boiling over in the worst way possible. She wanted to scream, but she knew that that would only draw more attention to herself, and she had no issues in that department. The last thing she needed to do was to throw a tantrum in front of all of these gems whose opinion Holly held to a higher standard.

Turning down her tenth hallway, she was suddenly frozen in her tracks. Right in front of her was a room with transparent walls, housing a few instruments, a table with the distinct form of a human female atop it, and two Calcites—Pink Calcites. One was holding a newborn human in her arms, rocking it gently, as the other one tended to the unconscious mother. Neither gems had technological enhancements. The calm sight placated the angry gem for a moment, leaving her intrigued. Her feet moved her forward of their own accord, willing her to take a closer look.

Her fingers were just reaching out towards the wall when the Calcite holding the baby cried out. “Stop! This is a sterile environment!” She clutched the baby closer, as if 8XC had showed up specifically to contaminate it.

“Mind the head,” her companion reminded her, completely unfazed by the intruder. With a sigh, the Pink Calcite lowered the newborn’s head onto the crook of her elbow, just as it was beginning to fuss.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” She asked, resuming her rocking.

“I was sent here with another Amethyst to make negotiations,” she growled, feeling her anger come back in clarity. “They threw me out.”

“I can see why.” The Pink Calcite chuckled, offering a finger to the baby, who clasped it dutifully. “Yes, I can. I can see it,” she cooed. 8XC found it difficult to maintain her fury.

She noticed something at that moment that she hadn’t noticed before. Calcites and Peridots were both technicians in their own right, playing a part in another entity’s life. Peridots were meant to mind young, untrained Quartzes who didn’t know their own strength, therefore they possessed a resilient form, but bodily strength was unnecessary. Calcites were built to explore, to travel by foot across treacherous landscapes, to get themselves out of situations. She couldn’t help but notice, at that moment, how handsomely crafted this gem was, with her gem perfectly centered in the space between her chest and her abdomen.

And then it hit her: she was in trouble, but it wasn’t for anything she had done thus far. She wasn’t supposed to feel this way, she wasn’t, and yet the more she talked to this gem, the more she less she wanted to stop. At the first realization, she cursed up and down in her head, while simultaneously eating up every word this gem uttered, interrupted only by subtle reprimands from what was evidently a more seasoned Calcite.

She was in trouble, but she would worry about that later.

“How many Pink Calcites are left?” 8XC asked curiously. They were sitting on the floor at that point, divided by the transparent walls.

“Oh, there’s plenty of us,” she replied, re-swaddling the baby in her lap. “Thirty, I think. Enough to keep the humans good and healthy.”

8XC wasn’t satisfied. “But we’ve never seen pink ones before!”

“The Blues are the ones who do all the technical stuff, and we work with the humans directly. We were the ones working with them before…you know…so that’s why. They’re here to make the job more efficient now that the…” she lowered her voice, “…the Rose Quartzes are no longer active. To help us, I mean.”

“We could help you,” 8XC offered before she could stop herself.

Calcite smiled at her. “I wish. It’d be a lot more interesting around here, that’s for sure. It can get so lonely here, with everyone working all the time.”

“I know the feeling.”

“Maybe you’d be more productive,” the other Calcite muttered, setting her device against the human’s abdomen once more, fading the scar across it further. Mother and the baby would be ready to be sent back to the enclosure soon, and 8XC would have to leave. She remembered Bee, and suddenly felt bad for leaving her alone there with that flighty Calcite to bargain for the humans’ food supply.

“Amethyst?” The Calcite asked.

“Huh?” She replied, unused to being referred to by her gem type. “Oh, I mean, what is it?”

She looked away, her cheeks coloring in embarrassment. “What is it like on the other side of the station? I haven’t seen it in so long.”

8XC wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Um, it’s a lot like here, only there’s more yelling. We do all maintenance work and we keep an eye on the humans, but that’s about it. Otherwise, Holly just abuses us however she sees fit. All the time. It’s terrible.”

“Your Agate?”

8XC grunted in reply, rubbing the gem on the back of her neck.

“That is terrible,” Calcite replied. “The Rose Quartzes were never abused like that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Surprisingly, it felt nice talking about the abuse out loud with a gem who wasn’t subject to the same punishment. She was such a sweet gem, too, and she cared about what she had to say.

 _No, you can’t think about her like that,_ she reprimanded herself, promptly ignoring her own sentiments. She smiled at the pink gem, and Calcite smiled back.

Suddenly, she felt an arm lift her off the floor and begin to drag her away. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!”

“Time to go, silly,” Bee chuckled, squeezing 8XC’s bicep fondly. “We threatened them into a deal, since that was how they wanted to behave. Kay was impressed.”

“Kay?” 8XC asked confusedly, digging in her heels.

“Oh, the Calcite that accompanied us. She told me her name.” She looked as if that were an accomplishment. “And what have you been up to, old Grumpite?”

8XC ignored the terrible joke on her behalf, focusing on the commotion from behind, the curses followed by hasty apologies, and a pink gem bounding down the hall to squeeze her around the middle, eliciting a gasp from 8XC and a choked laugh from Bee.

“Wait!” She cried, holding her tighter. “We were having such a nice chat!”

“We have to go now, I’m sorry.” She tried to pry the fingers off of her, wishing so badly to stay. She let the Pink Calcite rest her face against her abdomen for a moment, at least, resting her palms against her shoulders.

“At least tell me your name, so I’ll be able to recognize you next time,” came a muffled, disappointed voice.

“8XC,” she replied. “Amethyst 8XC, but just call me Cee.”

She looked up her at that point. “I’m a C, too!” she cried.

“Can I call you Pinky?”

“That’s adorable! Of course!” They laughed, hugged once more, then parted.

The entire walk back, besides checking in at Holly’s office to inform her that they had returned successful, was marked by Bee’s teasing and 8XC’s futile attempts to deny it. She was totally smitten with this organics technician that she just met, and it couldn’t have been more obvious. Of course, Bee was more than open to share her own antics, catching the fancy of their guide with her heroic negotiating skills (which didn’t require much, when you were much bigger and stronger than your opponent). By the time they finally reached the barracks to continue their rest, the two were on proper speaking terms again. Amethysts had an uncanny gift of getting over petty squabbles.

And for an indeterminable amount of time afterwards, 8XC’s mind was claimed by thoughts of the lovely Pink gem, wondering when, or if, they would ever meet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so much longer than it should've been, I'm sorry! XD It was just so much fun writing a mean Amethyst, I couldn't resist! She's kind of a Jasper-like character, only she takes her rebelliousness to an extreme instead of indoctrinating herself to the extreme. And *spoiler alert* they will meet again! Also, sorry for any typos, I wrote half of this in one sitting and am publishing without proofreading a second time.


	8. Awkward Love

Carnelian felt the automatic doors of the unused barracks squeezing against her chest and back as she restricted them from closing, hanging on stubbornly.

“Hey, Runt!” She heard Split call from within. “Come join us! You don’t have to stand there like that.”

“Yeah, pretty sure Skinny knows how to open a door,” Tawny laughed, leaning back on her palms. A few other Betas urged her inward, but Carnelian couldn’t move herself away from her spot.

“No, just a bit,” she argued weakly, clutching the metal surface stubbornly. “I have to…” she let the words fall away, unsure of what, exactly, she had to do, or rather how she would express it without looking like a fool.

“Okay, okay, whatever you say, Carn,” Split replied, sharing a glance with Tawny. It appeared, if nothing else, that they knew exactly what she meant. She really hated the Jaspers, sometimes.

The “Beta Reunions,” as Carnelian had officially dubbed them, happened as infrequently as the Betas could stand, lest Holly catch on to their game. It was the only act of true rebellion that the loyal soldiers have ever partaken in, and they relished every rare moment. Carnelian would be in there, too, among her kindergarten mates while exchanging pleasantries and playful abuse, if only Skinny would show up. Despite her leader status, she was _always_ late.

Carnelian didn’t mind, however. Holly assigned Skinny to the most time consuming and complicated tasks, which she often had to leave unfinished just to spend a moment with the others. Carnelian was fine as long as she got to spend even a moment with her fellow defect, her partner in crime, her favorite gem.

With a sigh, Carnelian leaned further into the corridor, looking from one end to the other anxiously, irrationally thinking the worst. All of this standing around was making her antsy. Finally—although it couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes of waiting—she heard Skinny’s voice traveling down the hall.

“Are you sure?” She heard her ask.

“Yeah, she’ll hardly talk to any of us and she keeps wandering around the station by herself,” an Amethyst answered. “I think she’s losing it.”

“Aren’t we all?”

Carnelian felt her heart sink. A second later, Skinny rounded the corner with her Elle, _her new best friend,_ Carnelian thought bitterly. Their arms were linked as they carried on like they had fought a war together, and Carnelian felt something unpleasant stir in her chest. Was this jealousy?

Her only consolation was the way Skinny’s face brightened even more at the sight of Carnelian, and she disentangled her arm to wave.

“Hey, short stuff!” Skinny called, a little too loudly in the echoing hallway. With a grin, Carnelian gestured for her to hush. As she approached, she patted her head fondly. “Did you wait out here just for me?”

Carnelian, suddenly self-coconscious, answered truthfully, “of course! It’s no fun without you.” That sounded a little too sincere for comfort.

“I think you need to get out more,” Skinny replied soberly. “I’m no more fun than the rest of this miserable lot.”

“G-get out more? How am I supposed to do that?” Carnelian tried to joke, but Skinny’s negative response made her reevaluate everything that came out of her mouth.

She had to remind herself that self-depreciation was just a part of Skinny’s sense of humor, and nothing she said was out of the ordinary. More and more, however, these kinds of jokes became yet another thing for Carnelian to obsess over. _Skinny, stop saying that stuff about yourself! You’re the best and everyone knows it_ , that was what she wanted to say, holding her tightly until she believed it.

Skinny appeared to be over it, at least, as she finally returned the smile and moved towards the barracks, catching the door to let the smaller gem free as she began to enter herself. There was an uproarious response—everyone was naturally glad to see their leader had finally made it—followed by loud shushing. Elle began to follow her. “Aww, is this the little meeting thing you’ve been telling me about, Skinny? I’ve never seen you Betas so relaxed!”

Carnelian quickly stepped in front of her, pushing on Elle’s thigh insistently. “Betas only!” She cried, attempting to shove the larger gem away from the room. There were a few rude remarks behind her, echoing the sentiments like a silly flock of birds.

“Woah, got it!” Elle chuckled, patting Carnelian’s head placatingly, as if she were a young, untrained Quartz that needed to be humored. Leaned into the room anyway, she called, “I’ll see you around, Skinny!”

“Will do!” Skinny called back, this time with Betas echoing _her_.

Letting the door shut with a clank, Carnelian plopped dutifully next to Skinny, uncharacteristically quiet and secretly fuming for no reason. What was wrong with her?

 

Her little outburst at the reunion was just one instance in a series of frustrating scenarios, mostly directed at Elle. She hated being defensive towards her and the 8s—they were so nice to her—but she didn’t know how else to express her feelings. It was either lash out or keep it in, and the latter was getting harder and harder to maintain.

As luck, or misfortune, would have it, she was left relatively alone once the other Betas disbanded. While there were a couple who were genuinely on break, they could sense that their little friend was having a bad time, and they knew that all Carnelian needed was space. What she needed more than anything, however, was someone to talk to, to reassure her that what she was feeling was okay and normal.

Curled up in one of the uppermost cubbies, Carnelian glared down at Elle and the other 8s, making herself miserable.

Carnelian had to be honest with herself: she loved Skinny more than any other gem, and doing nothing about it was absolutely infuriating. She had been dealing with this frustration for months, since she was able to identify it. A few Amethysts had introduced this foreign concept to the group after reading a Calcite’s notes on human relationships, and observing the choosened couples below. In great detail, they described the entire process to the excitement or disdain or fear from their fellow Quartzes.

Oh, if only she had seen Skinny’s reaction; it was too embarrassing to ask about! She was such a confident gem, despite her stature, yet the prospect of confessing her feelings was tearing her apart!

Maybe she was worried about what the other Betas would think, and just the idea of Skinny turning her down, or worse: refusing to be near her out of principle, it was too much for her to bear. What if Skinny liked Elle in that way and not her? That was the most painful option of them all, and not one she was prepared to accept.

She groaned, scooting further into the hole to keep from seeing the gems below. Squeezing her knees to her chest, she tried to will away the bad feelings for a moment, to think rationally.

 _You’re so melodramatic, Carnie,_ a notably Skinny voice quipped in her head, mildly judgmental but full of warmth, _just talk to me, you little dope._ She tacked a little chuckle at the end for good measure, because she knew was being silly.

Of course she was. She wouldn’t be Carnelian if she didn’t make a big deal out of everything. This thing was eating away at her, she knew this, and the longer she let it fester the worse she would feel. She feared that if she didn’t make her feelings known (more than her transparent-self had let the perceptive Jaspers assume), she would lose it.

Pushing her agitation down, she stood in the cubby, backed up to the back wall, tucked her chin, and darted from the hole into nothingness, spinning towards the ground at high velocity. There were a couple startled shouts as Carnelian contacted the ground, but the raucous cheers that followed was just the encouragement she needed. She needed to hurry before the confidence-high ended.

She turned to Elle. “Do you know where Skinny went?” She asked triumphantly. “I need to tell her something.”

Elle looked down at her in surprise, before bursting into a knowing smile. Carnelian hated it. “Replacing old panels in sector 4. Should be done right about now, so you might catch her in the maintenance airlock.”

“Thanks,” Carnelian replied, a little less enthusiastically. The discomfort in her chest moved down to her abdomen, a feeling she instantly identified as anxiety. Yes, she needed to take care of this right now.

As she practically dashed out the door, so eager was she to get this over with, she heard Elle call, “good luck!”

 

Skinny inspected the panel one more time, ensuring that no seams were visible. Holly was very particular about this, even though she would never be caught shattered outside of the station to check. No one knew how she did it, but they suspected the Red Eye that showed up every occasionally. Otherwise, it was simply on a whim that the Agate planned to make their lives terrible. Skinny was very particular about finishing a job properly, anyway, and the smooth edge her laser tool left behind was surprisingly satisfying.

She pushed her luck by leaving six of the fifteen unfinished when she dashed off to the reunion, hoping the Red Eye theory was false. Thankfully, she returned to an empty airlock and all of her equipment right where she left it, ready to be put to use again. She thanked the stars for her luck, knowing that she shouldn’t push it the next time.

Little did Skinny know, things were about to get much more complicated.

Skinny dropped the laser into the toolbox on the trolley beside her, closed the hatch securely, and removed the atmospheric bubble, letting the emptiness of space overtake her. Its vastness was overwhelming. Sometimes, she would try to wrap her mind around the sheer size as she worked outside the station, but it was all too anxiety-inducing to comprehend.

Slumping against the newly-repaired exterior, she sank down to the narrow catwalk below and curled her knees up to her chest. She felt so small, so insignificant against so many stars. It felt all the more significant because, in reality, she really was incredibly small and insignificant by Homeworld’s standards. She would’ve been shattered if it weren’t for Blue Diamond, that was how small she was. The only consolation was that one of those stars, lightyears away, was illuminating her home at that moment. Of course, once again, she felt the homesickness creeping up on her, a feeling that she hadn’t felt in some time.

Instantly, her mind went to Carnelian. It was always sometime after the fact, but she couldn’t help but notice her companion’s strange behavior as of late. Not being one to pry, however, she decided to let Carnelian come to her in her own time, which was beginning to feel like it would never happen. She wished that the little monster didn’t make her worry so much!

At least she could sooth one problem. She began to hum an old marching song from her time at Beta, the lyrics long forgotten, as she began to make her way to the airlock. She couldn’t remember when she had learned it exactly, but it always served to cheer her up a bit in a moment of melancholy, especially as she began to step in time to the rhythm.

Completely oblivious, she dragged the trolley into the small airlock as the doorway hissed closed. Just as she went to hang the tools in their proper places, a voice pipped, “nice singing.”

“Agh!” Skinny cried, tossing the laser in her surprise. Luckily, she caught it before it managed to burn a hole into the floor. Slapping the laser into its proper place, she swung around to face the intruder, only to find the subject of her concern. Carnelian looked up at her far too innocently for her own good. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Skinny barked.

“Sorry…” Carnelian replied, not sorry at all. She gnawed on her lip unsurely.

“Miss me already?” She joked lightly, watching Carnelian carefully.

She swallowed hard, looking anywhere but at her. “I, um, I was just wondering…what you and Elle were talking about earlier,” she finished lamely. “It-it sounded interesting.”

“Oh.” Skinny paused, taken off guard by the question and Carnelian’s bright red cheeks. “Well, Elle was telling me how Cee has been acting strangely since she and Bee came back from helping the Calcites and neither of them will talk about it. She’s _concerned_ about Cee, you know?” She put extra stress on the word, hoping to convey what she was feeling herself.

“That’s…okay.” Carnelian nodded awkwardly while slowly backing towards the exit. “Well, I was just curious. See ya later.”

“Get back here.” Skinny ordered sternly, putting on the nifty leader voice she had adopted a while ago. To her surprise, Carnelian acted accordingly, turning miserably to face her with her shoulders hunch and her face turned towards the ground. She looked like she was being scolded.

Skinny lowered herself to the floor, motioning for Carnelian to do the same, putting them on roughly the same level. Intimidation was not key in this situation, she decided.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been acting weird for a while now, and there’s no reason for it. I’m worried about you.” She touched her shoulder in what she hoped was comfort. “You know you can always talk to me about anything, even stuff your too scared to tell anyone else. I’m here for you, Carnie.”

She muttered something inaudible, trailing off in the middle of a sentence.

“What was that?”

Carnelian sprung up before her, letting Skinny’s hand fall into her lap. “I have to tell you something!” She cried, much to Skinny’s bewilderment. Before Skinny could react, she continued in rush. “I’ve been acting weird because I have all these weird feelings that I can’t understand and I don’t know how to feel about my feelings so I just bottle them up until they make me frustrated so I just kinda throw them at people and that’s kinda what I’m doing to you right now, but whatever!

“I’m so confused, Skinny! I’m sorry! I just—” she inhaled, exhaled. “—I really like you, like more than I think I should and it feels really wrong but I can’t change it. I just thought you should know. I like your smile and your laugh and the way you sing when no one is around. I love the way you care so much about everyone and everything, even though you pretend like you don’t. I love that you love things for no reason but to love them. I…I really, really like you a lot and I just need to know how you feel about it, or else I’ll implode! I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to or if it weirds you out or anything, I’m just so tired of all this not knowing!” She slapped her hands over her face, which was practically glowing red at this point, and waited for a response.

Skinny stared at Carnelian in shock, mouth slightly agape. In the time it took her to process this proclamation (seconds), Carnelian was already shuffling towards the door again.

“Nevermind, forget I said anything,” she muttered hastily, attempting to retreat.

Skinny was too shocked, and frankly too embarrassed, to call her back in. Instead, she did the only thing she could think of at the time: she lunged forward, faced Carnelian towards her, and pulled her into a hug. She rested her chin firmly on her shoulder, squeezing her warm body tightly as they sat quietly for a moment, searching for the words.

The silence stretched on, and Skinny felt Carnelian finally relax against her, meekly snaking her arms around her neck and pressing her forehead against her neck.

 _Stay focused_ , Skinny told herself as she the contact made her feel flustered. Squeezing a little tighter, she replied, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

There was a moment of silence, followed by Carnelian’s muffled, pitiful voice. “I thought you liked Elle.”

She couldn’t help it; she laughed in surprise. Feeling Carnelian stiffen against her, however, she had to explain. “Aw, Carnie, we’re just friends and frankly, Amethysts aren’t my type.” Then, more quietly, “besides, she likes Gee. Ha! Don’t tell anyone or she’ll shatter me. Don’t worry, I like you, too.”

“What does that mean?” Came the reply.

“I don’t know what it means. Why me, though? The Amethysts are the ones that are getting into this whole…relationship thing, and they’re so much better than…they’re not…they’re not like me. Not defective. I mean, you’re defective, too, but given the choice…?”

Carnelian tried to push away, this time to look her in the face, but Skinny wasn’t having it at this point, as she held on even tighter. Despite her joking, she had already brought herself down, and she was too close to tears to risk it. Carnelian’s warmth was the only thing that was keeping her together at this point.

“I think you’re perfect,” she answered softly.

That was it; that was her breaking point. Skinny cursed herself mentally as she felt the tears fall down her face, and she tried to swipe them away as discretely as possible.

“I think you’re perfect, too.”

Taking a bolder step, Skinny turned her head slightly, brushing her cheek against Carnelian’s, trying to convey how she felt. It wasn’t enough, it’ll never be enough, but the words stuck in her mouth before she could say them aloud. She wasn’t ready for this, apparently, but she wanted to be, she wanted to try. Finally, telling her fear of the unknown and of Holly to take a hike, she let Carnelian go.

“Are you crying?” Carnelian asked.

Mortified, Skinny tried wipe away the remnants. “No…”

Carnelian laughed, helping her. Neither of them were good at this whole “feelings” thing, but they were doing their best with what they had. As long as Carnelian was putting here’s out in the open, Skinny might as well, too.

“I like you a lot, too,” Skinny repeated, laughing at herself and the situation. “You’re so strong, resourceful, and brave. I can’t say that I would have had the will to go on, if I were in your situation, ya know? Losing your entire cut…I can’t imagine, but you’re so brave, Carnie. You’re a fighter.” She sighed, feeling the words come more freely. “There were times on Earth that I wished I was as mentally strong and fearless as you.”

“What about Muscles?” Carnelian asked incredulously. “Did you forget about her already?”

Skinny had been trying not to think about her unfortunate kindergarten mate, hoping that the memory of her would fade into something more pleasant. She was the Facet Nine Kindergarten Quartz that Could, not the broken gem she watched dash off into the storm, towards her demise. But that was beside the point.

“I haven’t,” she replied, “she’s…she wasn’t defective like us, not as far as any of us could see. And you saw what happened to her in the end: she cracked. She wasn’t okay, and you have somehow managed to pull through, despite everything. I admire you for that, and lots of other things, too. But you know what else I like about you?”

“What?” She replied.

This time, Skinny snatched her up playfully in a tight embrace, practically pulling Carnelian into her lap, pressing their faces together. “You’re so warm and you’re the only Beta that likes hugs! You feel like...you feel like home.”

“That’s gotta be the sappiest thing you’ve ever said, Skinny,” Carnelian chuckled. “I’m guessing you like hugs, too?”

“I thrive off them,” she replied, feeling uplifted, “but not from just anyone.”

“Heh, me too,” Carnelian sighed. “What should we do now?”

“Let’s try this thing and see how we like it,” Skinny offered. “I mean, it works pretty well for the Amethysts, right?” The wheels began to turn in her mind. “Maybe it’ll encourage the other Betas to get out of their shells, too.”

“That would be nice. Even I think they need to lighten up a little sometimes.” They both laughed again, feeling awkwardly at peace.

_Click, click, click._

That didn’t last long.

They sprang away from each other as they heard the distinct sound of Holly pacing quickly down the corridor. Thinking fast, Carnelian ducked behind the trolley as Skinny hastily threw the rest of the tools into their proper places. When the door finally opened, nothing was amiss, besides the fact that Skinny should have been finished a while ago. That fact was evident, based on the irritation on Holly’s face.

Before Skinny could salute, she grabbed the slim gem by the forearm and shook her. “What are you still doing here?! You filthy Betas really are as useless as you look!”

Unfazed, Skinny saluted respectfully, deciding to tread lightly. “Will all due respect, Holly Blue, I was only taking my time to make sure I did the job properly. Better to do the job right than to do it quickly, yes?”

It was obvious that Holly was only satisfied with bot, but she didn’t grace Skinny with a response. Instead, she began to haul her from the airlock and into the hallway, off to another assignment. Swiveling around, Skinny smiled at Carnelian, a silent promise of more to come. This conversation wasn’t over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been dying to get to this point, you have no idea! This is completely self-indulgent fluff and I have no regrets. Skinny and Carnelian's relationship isn't going to be a huge thing throughout the fic, but I would like to develop it a bit in later chapters. In case it wasn't obvious, Betas don't know how to feelings. Thanks for reading!


	9. A Little Closure

Oldie was huddled in the loneliest corner of the barracks with the intent to avoid conversation, in favor of staring thoughtlessly at the opposite wall.

These days, she was inadvertently drifting away from the other Primes in favor of the silence, feeding into her melancholy. It wasn’t so much that she was still mourning her lost cut, but an emptiness, a disinterest in the present and the future, an all-encompassing nothingness. It was a depression so deeply embedded, she and it became one and the same.

“What was it like before the war?”

Oldie was brought back to the moment by a voice at her elbow, a warm hand on her forearm, and a completely unexpected question. So preoccupied was she, she didn’t notice Carnelian trudge into the barracks, and she wouldn’t have noticed the question if she hadn’t grabbed her arm. She looked down at the smaller gem’s earnest face, feeling a smile pulling at her lips that died at her cheeks.

“What’re you doing here, Red? I thought Holly had you working double time again.”

“I finished early,” Carnelian sighed. “Ton of easy stuff, but lots of climbing. I think Holly is hoping that I have an accident and get myself shattered in the walls. One less defect for her to look at.”

“And Skinny?” She pressed, easing Carnelian away from heavy topics and into something she could go on about, something that she doesn’t have to contribute much to. “I know you like to talk to me sometimes, but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you’d rather see her.”

“She was busy,” Carnelian replied truthfully. “She should be finishing up soon, but she wouldn’t mind hanging out with us when she comes back.” She grew quiet, maintaining her pleading gaze that asked a silent question. It wasn’t the one she had asked previously, but Oldie understood it well enough.

_Are you okay?_

She didn’t know.

Taking a deep breath, she regarded the small gem beside her, hanging on the edge of her cubby, one hole from the ceiling. Resigning herself to her fate, she scooted to the side and offered a hand to Carnelian, pulling her further into the hole as she arranged her thoughts. As the only gem on the station who knew of simpler times on Earth.

“You wanna know what it was like before the war?”

“Yeah, but only if you want to!” She replied quickly, trying not to look too eager. “Maybe we can call the others over and—”

“No.” Oldie replied sharply, more sharply than she herself was expecting, and certainly more than Carnelian. She softened her tone. “No, Red. They’ve been trying to separate themselves from that time for so long, and it’s so easy when they weren’t even there. Talking about it, remembering it, would only alienate more than I am already.” She chuckled lightly to herself. “Just listen up, ‘cause I’m only gonna say this once.”

Carnelian nodded vigorously, positioning herself to face Oldie and pulling her knees up to her chest, ready to listen.

Oldie began.

 

* * *

I emerged near the end of an era, but I didn’t know it at the time.

When I was a young soldier, I can’t say things in Prime were much different before than they were after the war. Even Beta, with the constant threat of Crystal Gem raids putting everyone on edge, functioned similarly in most ways.

We had Agates: Purple Eye and Pink Lace and others, and they were just as mean as the Agates you encountered, and they didn’t get any nicer when the war started, that’s for sure. Some were even meaner than Holly—don’t tell me they weren’t!—but there was never any question in their dedication. Even though Agates weren’t meant to fight on the front lines, we knew that they would fight alongside us if the situation arose. I didn’t realize how much I respected my Agates until we were all stuck with the likes of Holly. But, we all know that.

We had Peridots that were annoying and necessary and annoying because they were necessary. Most of the time, it felt like they were just there to get in the way, but it was always a relief to have one handy you get a nick in your gem or when something mechanical stopped working. They kept close tabs on all of us soldiers and picked out all of our tiny flaws, obsessed over them. That was their job, of course, but we were always convinced that they took some sick joy out of humiliating us.

* * *

 

“They do,” Carnelian cut in quickly, forcefully. “At least, the ones at Beta did.”

Oldie nodded sympathetically, reaching out to touch Carnelian’s knee before continuing, hesitating on the next part. Carnelian seemed to pick up on this, prompting her with the very thing she feared to say aloud.

“And what about the Rose Quartzes? Where did they fit in with all this when there wasn’t a war to fight?”

Frowning hard, Oldie replied grimly, “that’s what makes my experience different from yours, I’m afraid.”

 

 

* * *

The Rose Quartzes were our mentors of sorts, teaching us basic things that all soldiers should know. The Agates didn’t have the patience to tell us how to salute properly or do a good dash, and the Peridots weren’t qualified to tell us that stuff. They were less intimidating, anyway, and we weren’t afraid of failure like we were with the Agates.

Now, I’m just gonna come out and say it: the Rose Quartzes were great. They were just like us, joking around and taking the same abuse from the Agates, even sticking up for us when the Agates were a little too hard on us. We were all just soldiers learning to fight for Homeworld, after all; they were just older. There was an inherent respect there, though, because they had so much more experience than us, but they didn’t take advantage of it, none of the ones that I have met.

I can see that you’re shocked, but don’t get me wrong! I’ve been hearing stories of the one “off” Rose Quartz since the day I emerged.

This…this is my biggest secret that isn’t really a secret: half of my column was mentored by that very Rose. The leader of the rebellion stole them from us with her words, and every single one of them joined the rebellion. I’ve made my peace with it, but it still stings when I think about it.

My half of the column was mentored by a Rose from her column. I don’t remember her name, but I do remember she had really short hair and pale peach eyes and a pretty laugh; her gem placement was the middle of her chest. She used to point out which Agates to look out for, and warn us when one of them was coming close. I know it hurt her to do this, but she actually cautioned us about the other’s tendencies, even though we didn’t think much of it at the time.

In the middle of one of our first training sessions, she argued with the rebel Rose, who was planning to take the other Amethysts on a trip to the outskirts of Prime. What was said is a little fuzzy in my mind—I think I tried to block that moment out for a long time—but this is what I can remember.

The short-haired one asked her where she was going, and the rebel was too reluctant to say. It seemed like she even knew what the rebel was doing, but she wanted to hear her say it out loud, for all of us to say.

She told her that they were heading to the southern entrance so that she could show them something, before leaving quickly.

“If she tells you something weird, come get me and I’ll take care of her,” was what our mentor told us that day. We weren’t really sure what she meant at the time, but I think she was reluctant, but willing, to report her if needed.

It was obvious that half of our column, as well as Amethysts from other columns, were spending an unusual amount of time with this Rose, hanging off of her every word and repeating them in whispers to the others. She told them about how beautiful the Earth and its creatures were at first, nothing treasonous, but then it turned to what Homeworld was doing to destroy all of it. Again, it wasn’t anything to be reported over, but talking negatively about Homeworld was always a cause for concern, and from what I could gather from the other Roses, this wasn’t the first time she’d said things like this.

To make a long story short, this is where things fell apart: Rose Quartz left with two columns-worth of Amethysts and never returned. Six of them were from mine.

The kindergarten was put on lockdown, all of the Amethysts were interrogated within an inch of their lives, and the surrounding area was searched, but there wasn’t a trace of any of the gems. Even with the light security, small groups of Amethysts went missing every few days, even a few Agates. It was madness! The rebellion made itself known not long afterwards, with Rose Quartz at the head of a small battalion of Amethysts, accompanied by a group of odd gems, including the defective Pearl that was always at her side.

And after that…all of the Rose Quartz soldiers disappeared. We were all called to a debriefing at the center of the kindergarten, but the Rose Quartzes were ordered to stay behind. We were given formal instructions to be on our guard and prepare for a skirmish, and when we returned to our sectors, they were gone.

* * *

 

Oldie took a moment to reign in her thoughts and bring them back to the present, away from things she couldn’t change. It felt good to finally lay these events out before her for someone else to examine, but it made her anxiety spike in a way she hadn’t experienced since the shattering of Pink Diamond. In a way, it was a welcome change. Feeling something was a whole lot better than feeling nothing.

After a moment of silence, Carnelian asked in a mystified tone, “where do you think they put them? They didn’t just shatter them all, they couldn’t have! So many…”

“So many.” Oldie agreed, thankful that she could feel pity for the innocent Rose Quartzes that were forced to suffer because of the actions of one defective soldier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that took so long, guys! All of my creativity went into school and I writer's block got me big time for the last couple months! I'm planning on writing a series of shorter chapters before I make my way into the meat of the matter and finally the conclusion of this fic, so expect more frequent updates in the future. Although this chapter doesn't seem like much, it's pretty important for things to come. Thanks for being incredibly patient!


	10. Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond had done everything that was expected of her.

As per White’s instruction, she had thrown herself into her work, guiding her court into a new era of peace and unity. At this point, separate courts were merely a designation and nothing more, as resources became more and more scarce and they were forced to pool together their assets in order to move forward. She ordered and collaborated and oversaw the growth of Homeworld’s capital into a sprawling metropolis until she was—quite literally—blue in the face. The memories of the war had faded to the back of her mind, the precursor to things she was currently preoccupied with and nothing more, but now that the old city was finally covered over by the new one, she was suddenly struck by her yearning for what was.

And, of course, that yearning led to thoughts of Pink, and thinking of Pink was what pushed her back into despair. Pink, the only Diamond who was truly agreeable towards her, with no ulterior motives but to love and be loved, was shattered and gone, and she was left feeling so incredibly alone.

White had always been distant and the other Diamonds had given trying to forge an alliance with her long before the rebellion, but she had hoped that the experience would have inspired Yellow to be a little more appreciative of her company. She knew that Yellow had been as deeply affected by Pink’s death as she, but she certainly wasn’t prepared to show it. Sometimes Yellow was always at her side, pushing her to do more and more, and sometimes it felt as if all she wanted to do was start a fight. It was exhausting.

Just a moment. All she needed was a moment to grieve.

The grief was clawing its way to the surface, whether she liked it or not, and she knew that her court was beginning to sense it. Even at that moment, in the confines of her imperial starship, she could see her incredibly disciplined guards growing antsy and uncomfortable in her presence. Of course, seeing this made her self-conscious, which only made her emotions even harder to control.

“Leave me,” she ordered.

“Yes, my Diamond,” they answered in unison, with a sigh of relief.

As soon as the door shut behind the last gem, she rested her elbow on the arm of her throne and leaned her head heavily on her palm, attempting her reel in her emotions. It had to wait until she was alone in the private quarters at Pink Diamond’s menagerie, where no one would bother her and where, hopefully, Yellow would not be able to find her.

 

“What's that?” Gee asked, pointing at the surveillance monitor. 8XL blinked hard, having stared blankly at a different monitor for an hour straight, and turned to see what was concerning Gee.

There were perks to being a leader, she had decided, as Holly continued to let her choose her partner for different shifts. It was pretty pathetic, she had to admit, but she hoped that in continuing to pick, she would finally get the memo. Heck, even Carnelian was able to confess her feeling before she could! Despite being outgoing in all other aspects of personality, 8XL was hopelessly shy when it came to anything more intimate than friendship.

Stifling a sigh, she turned to see what Gee was concerned about. “What’s what, Gee Gee?” She asked, stretching her arms over her head.

“This blue dot,” she replied, leaning closer to scrutinize it. “It wasn’t here a second ago…”

“Dying star, maybe?” 8XL suggested. “Stars do that, right? They get really hot and bright and turn blue, and then they kinda explode and implode at the same time and turn into white dwarfs?”

Gee looked at her quizzically. “Where’d you learn all that?”

“I may have perused the databases,” 8XL replied coolly, shrugging her shoulders in an attempt to hide her enthusiasm, over both Gee’s interest and her own love of space. “Let me see.”

As soon as she stooped to look, however, the blue dot had stretched impossibly across the void, looking increasingly less star-like. After millennia of staring at empty space—with the occasional foreign aircraft manned by some organic food dealer—she had no idea what to call this anomaly. Suddenly, the blue line snapped into place, so close that there was no mistaking what it was.

“A ship!” Gee called out dumbly, as the giant blue arm coasted to rest around the station, like a soft embrace from a machine whose power could destroy the entire place in seconds.

“Blue Diamond,” 8XL breathed, then more loudly. “Holly!”

Before Gee could ask what she was doing, 8XL was already sprinting at full speed through the halls, in search of the disagreeable Agate. As much as she would have liked to leave Holly to embarrass herself later, she knew from experience that she and Gee would be the ones to take the brunt of her fury. She could take it, but if there was a way she could keep Gee from getting into trouble, she had to do it.

Thankfully, she found Holly Blue in the hangar bay already, having just gotten done reprimanding the soldiers on guard duty (judging by the uncomfortable grimaces on their faces). She was just beginning to descend to the lower level when 8XL burst through the main door, nearly toppling down the stairs in her haste.

“Ha-Holly!” She cried, waving her arms wildly as she tried to regain balance. Forgetting all about the thinking-before-doing mentality that all of the Quartzes had acquired both in the war and with Holly, she started moving down the stairs towards her, before finally making a hasty salute. “Holly Blue, I—”

“What. Have. I. Said. About. Running?” Holly interrupted threateningly, and 8XL could already feel the nervous glances on either side of her, but she held her ground.

“I’m sorry, Holly, but this is important! Blue Dia—”

This time, she was interrupted by the unmistakable _shush_ of the huge side doors, leading to a hangar specifically designed for the Diamonds. Both Holly and 8XL stood, stunned, at the bottom of the stairs as they watched the stately blue matriarch glide into the room, hood up and hands folded within her massive sleeves. The room was suddenly much colder, but at least 8XL had enough sense to place herself well behind the Agate and crossing her salute more tightly in front of her chest. No one could fault her for _that_ , but she just couldn’t wrench her eyes away from such a powerful being.

Again, without any prior judgement, 8XL began to follow behind Holly, even as she heard the two Amethysts manning the door try to call her back as discretely as possible.

She was mesmerized, terrified, and completely at a loss for words. Besides, there was one mystery that she had been trying to figure out since the first time she met her new Diamond, a mystery that she wasn’t at the liberty of knowing. In fact, it had been the thing that she was looking for in the databases, before her attention was diverted to something that interested her more. All the information she had access to was related to space travel and humans, and hadn’t been updated since before the war, with next to no information about any of the Diamond Authority.

For a while, she had just accepted that that moment, the first day on the station, had simply been charged by the emotions of all of her fellow soldiers. She imagined the odd feeling because she was stressed out and confused. But when she approached the Diamond, the feeling miraculously returned, a veil of coldness and apprehension. Even Holly, from what 8XL could see from behind, was struggling to keep her composure in her presence, ducking her head uncomfortably.

“M-my Diamond!” She cried. “What a pleasant and unexpected surprise!”

“Likewise, though completely expected, Agate,” Blue Diamond answered calmly. “I trust that everything is as it should be, correct?”

8XL was actually concerned that Holly would start to complain about them for a second, but in turned out that Holly valued her own reputation more than she hated her charges. “Of course, of course, just as you ordered!”

“Very good.”

8XL had never been this close to a Diamond before, even when Pink Diamond was still alive. Her Pearl, three steps behind and three steps to the right of her mistress, was close enough to touch. Some soldiers would have tried it just to see what would happen, but 8XL had a little restraint; that restraint, however, was not necessary, as the Diamond—her Diamond, she reminded herself—turned to speak to her.

“Are you the messenger?” She asked, dipping her head further into her cloak.

She tensed her arms, feeling as if she were being reprimanded, but the feeling finally helped her avert her eyes. “Y-yeah…yes, for this shift, Blue Diamond.”

“Please,” she replied, followed by a sharp inhalation from Holly. An icy finger tapped the top of her own head, before snaking under her chin, and it took everything in her power not to recoil. “Don’t be so shy. I am your Diamond, and you may address me as such.” It sounded like an kind offer, but 8XL knew it was a threat.

“Yes, m-my Diamond,” 8XL amended, feeling the “my” stick uncomfortably in her mouth.

The finger felt like a shackle around her neck as she said this, and she wished to be anywhere but there at that moment. She didn’t have a lot of experience with Diamonds, having only seen Pink in a time of war, but she knew for a fact that this wasn’t the emotion they were supposed to evoke, and the idea made her apprehensive. Finally—thank the stars!—the finger slipped away and the Diamond began to move forward once more.

“Very good.” She repeated, waving off Holly’s advances. “I am here on unofficial business and don’t wish to be bothered. I won’t be long.”

Holly was speechless, unable to utter even a complimentary “yes, my Diamond” in response, as Blue Diamond glided through the second set of gigantic doors, entering the inner sanctums of the station. She was definitely the source of the strange feeling, as the coolness seemed to be ripped from the room as soon as the doors shut behind her, along with the heavy sense of dread.

With her wits about her, 8XL suddenly realized what kind of predicament she found herself in, and as noiselessly as possible, she retreated up the stairs and through the door. The Amethysts guards gazed at her in awe as she passed, partially from having been in contact with a _Diamond_ and partially from the fact that she had put herself in that situation in the first place. Was she crazy or stupid? Probably both.

She didn’t stop her brisk pace until she fell into her seat at the surveillance station, feeling drained.

“What’s wrong? Was it really Blue Diamond?” Gee asked worriedly.

“It is,” 8XL groaned, “but she was acting…would it be treason if I said she was acting weird?”

“Probably,” Gee replied, “but how so?”

“Don’t even get me started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna try to get another chapter out before next weekend (homework is a bitch) and then I really want to start on the short Jasper fic I was talking about a while ago. Thanks for reading!


	11. Agitation

Skinny burned the tips of her fingers for what felt like the thousandth time, trying to bond the severed wires back together as a temporary fix, until they could retrieve more supplies. She grumbled under her breath about the lack of aid from Homeworld as she burned her thumb again, complex circuitry swimming before her eyes. To make matters worse, this was an important terminal in the Calcite’s domain, used to communicate with the observation deck on their own side.

Finally, FINALLY, the final wire was repaired to her liking, and she was able to tuck it back in its place. The result wasn’t pretty, but at least the terminal lit up soon after she was done. It was good enough.

“Is it fixed?” She heard close to her ear. The Blue Calcite leaned worriedly over Skinny’s shoulder, gazing at her handy work as if she understood what she was doing. Heck, Skinny didn’t even know what she was doing half the time!

Skinny stood, cracking her work-stiffened knuckles. “I think so,” she sighed. “Try it out.”

The Calcite slipped between the lanky gem and the terminal, tapping the center with a single floating digit from her limb enhancers and bringing up a holographic screen. Letting out an excited squeak, she sent a command that brought up an image of the observation deck, with an Amethyst’s alert face framed in the center.

“Hey!” She cried. “It works!”

“Good as new!” The Blue Calcite agreed, gesturing over her shoulder. “Thanks to this Jasper, that is.”

“Who? Skinny? In that case, you might wanna get that checked out by a pro before you use it again,” The Amethyst snorted rudely. “There’s a chance it might blow up.”

“Oh, shut it,” Skinny replied, too drained to argue.

The Calcite giggled behind her hand, oblivious to Skinny’s agitation. Good, she didn’t want to stay here much longer, anyway. The last thing she needed was to be yelled at by Holly in front of all these gems that she didn’t know; it was bad enough on the other side of the station, where there were gems that actually cared how she felt.

 _Deep breath, Skinny,_ she told herself, inhaling and exhaling unnecessarily in an attempt to calm down, a trick that worked most of the time.

Her mind had been a stew of bad feelings from time to time, ever since Blue Diamond became a semi-regular visitor to the station. For the last few decades, there were stretches of time where she would show up unannounced, give Holly the bare minimum in way of conversation, then excused herself to Pink Diamond’s private quarters on “unofficial business.” On the way there, she would seek out an unsuspecting Quartz to interrogate in her civilized, indirect way, asking how they liked the station, the humans, the Calcites, and—stars forbid—Holly Blue. Naturally, they lied about everything, and the craftier soldiers bent the truth in their favor, hoping that the answer was as convincing as they thought it was. No one was spared, Prime or Beta, and unfortunately, Skinny was the Beta that Blue Diamond chose to meet.

“How do you like it here?” Blue had asked.

“It’s fine,” Skinny replied, semi-truthful. “Better than being shattered, for sure.”

“Almost the entirety of Beta has been shattered,” Blue added, the darkness beneath her cloak becoming seemingly darker. “You are very lucky.”

“I suppose I am, my Diamond.”

The words still played in Skinny’s head, and she wondered tiredly what Holly was going to do about it. Had she been too blunt? Had she said something that could have been taken as offensive? She didn’t have to mention being shattered. Surely that would have been a sore spot for Blue, and it’s not really something one would bring up in normal conversation. Or was it? She didn’t get enough social interaction.

Besides the little screw up with her own encounter with Blue Diamond, Skinny found that she was also hypersensitive to the energy that Blue let out, the chilliness that seemed to envelop her wherever she went. Even now, when she was on the opposite side of the station from the Diamond, she could feel that heavy, dragging atmosphere pulling her down through the floor. She almost felt like crying, but that was a pathetic way to express her emotions, especially when she had nothing to cry about.

Skinny decided that she hated Blue Diamond, but she wouldn’t think on it too much, for fear of Blue Diamond reading her thoughts.

Thankfully, that wasn’t an issue for long. As she exited the Calcite’s side of the station with little preamble, she felt a small, red gem barrel into her, nearly knocking her off balance. Warm arms clung to her waist—as high as the gem could reach—and a warm face pressed into the sensitive space just above her gem. Skinny tended to have a violent reaction to being tickled, and she struggled to keep from accidentally kneeing her in the face at the sensation.

“Hey, short stuff,” Skinny chuckled, brushing her slender fingers through the gem’s silky, soft hair, contrasting so greatly with the coarse mess that was her own.

“Sup, tall stuff?” Carnelian replied, turning her face up to meet her tall companion’s gaze with a big grin on her face. After a moment, the corners dipped a bit as she asked, “you okay?”

 _How can she tell?_ Skinny thought in bewilderment. She had figured that her face was neutral enough not to worry anyone, but the concern on Carnelian’s face said otherwise. “What do you mean, Carnie? I’m fine as always.”

“I was hiding around the corner over there, waiting to jump on you when you came out.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder with a mischievous grin. “And you looked a little slouchy and tired when you came out, so I gave you a hug instead.” As if to punctuate her point, the little menace kissed her abdomen, just grazing the top of Skinny’s gem.

This time, Skinny had to—reluctantly—push her away, letting out an ugly laugh and blushing furiously. “Not right now, Carnie!” She whispered tremulously between giggles. “There’s a Diamond here!”

“Good!” Carnelian whispered loudly. “Now even the Diamond Authority can know how cute you are!”

At this point, Skinny was thoroughly embarrassed, but flattered nonetheless. It had been an interesting time for the two of them as well, figuring out just how they felt about being in a relationship. Skinny still wasn’t sure if she wanted to keep this going, bringing with it the risk of getting caught as well as the obligation to someone else’s emotions. She had always been emotional backbone for her team, and the idea that she would have to be that doubly to Carnelian was something she hadn’t been prepared to take on when the small gem originally confessed her feelings to her. But it wasn’t like that in practice, no. The two of them together made the emotional foundation of the team, each making the other more stable than they were apart and, in turn, making the entire team more stable in the process.

She also never realized that love was something she had always craved until she finally had it. If this had been a fact thousands of years ago in Beta, she would have adamantly denied it, denied having any emotions at all. She knew, if it had been made known before, she would have been relentlessly teased about being like Rose Quartz, as if they needed another negative thing to point out about her. Now, the others simply teased the both of them for not trying this sooner.

Stooping to kiss the top of Carnelian’s head in return, Skinny started to make her way down the hall, her frustrations momentarily forgotten, but this conversation wasn’t over yet. The small gem trotted up beside her, snatched at one of her hands, and attempted to pull her back.

“C’mon, what’s wrong?” She asked worriedly. “I’m not gonna let you bottle it up.”

Skinny looked around as if the Diamond could hear them, before pulling Carnelian closer. “Can’t you feel it?” She confided. “Whenever _she’s_ here? It’s like this weird…sadness that covers the entire place. No matter where I go, I can feel it. I can feel it right now!”

Carnelian cocked her head, as if she were waiting for the feeling to slap her upside the head, but it was obvious she didn’t feel what Skinny felt. So much for that. Finally, she replied, “I can’t, but I’ve heard some of the others talking, feeling down all of a sudden, but no one made the connection with Blue because they’re normally nowhere near her.” She shrugged. “Guess you’re just lucky.”

“Oh so lucky,” Skinny smirked. “I get to feel her emotions the entire time she’s here.”

Feeling a bit better about the situation, knowing that she wasn’t the only one, Skinny and Carnelian continued their walk in contented silence. The halls were already so quiet, as per Holly’s instruction, but the simple act of being together spoke louder than words. What had turned out to be a terrible week became quite a nice day. Perhaps they could plan another reunion when they got back to the barracks for when Blue Diamond leaves.

How sad, to be excited for your Diamond’s departure. If it had been Pink Diamond, she wouldn’t have felt this way at all; no apprehension, no sadness.

Skinny bit down at her bottom lip and kept walking.

They didn’t get very far when they heard the sound of two other gems, dangerously loud in the echoing corridor. Skinny would have normally left the gems to whatever they were doing—it was none of her business what kind of risks the Amethysts were willing to make and she frankly didn’t want to walk up on something she wasn’t meant to see—but this time was different. In the midst of the chatter, she heard the distinct, clear tone of a Calcite, and the urgent rasp of an Amethyst.

 _That’s gotta be 8XC,_ Skinny thought in realization as she slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing aloud. _So, this is the big secret!_

Carnelian seemed to be thinking the same thing, as she doubled over with silent chuckles. Together, the snuck across the corridor and peered around the corner in the direction of the noise, finding one of the other entrances to the Calcite’s side slightly ajar. Lo and behold, Cee was standing right there, waving goodbye to a gem just behind the door. There was one more hasty exchange of words that they couldn’t quite make out, and the door shut completely. When she turned back around, she looked extremely agitated, upset, angry. None of those were good signs coming from Cee.

Skinny decided it was her sworn duty to poke the bear. “Well, well, well,” she drawled, hands on her hips appraisingly. “What have we here?”

“Go bug someone else, Skinny,” Cee snapped defensively.

“I’m sorry,” skinny chuckled, unfazed. “I just wanted to meet your little friend!”

Cee grumbled something inaudible, starting to walk away from the scene with a scowl on her face, something Skinny was all too familiar with. Not one to be ignored, Skinny called out.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you!”

Cee spun around angrily. “I said it’s none of your business, you stupid defect!”

Skinny felt Carnelian materialize beside her, hand hovering just over her gem, but Skinny put a soothing hand on her shoulder. Names like that stopped having an effect on her, and it was all a part of her plan. She was trying to needle Cee into telling the truth herself, if not to Skinny then to her teammates.

“Oh, well in that case,” she replied, leaning forward for emphasis, “I guess you won’t mind if I went and told Elle what you’re doing.”

That seemed to make her halt for a moment. “You wouldn’t.”

“I don’t have any respect for gems that sneak behind their team’s backs and lie to their faces,” she stated, glaring hard. “It compromises the strength of the unit, and honestly, why would you test their trust like this. It’s not like they’re gonna go blabbing to Holly or anything! Stars above, Cee! You just insulted me and _I_ would never tell on you, no matter what.”

“I don’t need a moral lesson from you,” Cee replied stubbornly, so familiarly stubborn it was actually making Skinny mad. She didn’t even bother letting Cee make the decision herself, knowing that she wasn’t in the mood to cooperate. Skinny was going to tell Elle whether Cee liked it or not.

She didn’t even bother announcing it, as Cee was already walking away with her shoulders hunched. Skinny felt a moment of guilt, thinking that maybe Cee was being affected by Blue’s presence as well, but that didn’t change the fact that what she was doing was still detrimental to her team, and she couldn’t allow anyone to disrespect her friend like that.

“I could have broken her knees, Skinny,” Carnelian whispered a while later. “Then we could have dragged her to the barracks before her legs heal and make her fess up.”

Skinny laughed, ruffling her hair fondly. “No offense, but I think Elle would rather us big, bad Betas not beat up her teammates.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just had to write a bit of Skinnelian fluff before setting things into action! I'm really trying to get these chapters out, but school is a thing with writing obligations that I must meet. Anyways, thanks for reading!


	12. The Discovery

8XB twisted in her cubby, stretching until her feet touched the back wall and her arms hung out the front, then rolling onto her stomach to get a view of the barracks. The room was practically empty, save for a few Amethysts—most of whom were from her own column—and a couple Jaspers. It was one of those rare, quiet moments in which they could actually enjoy the silence, in the company of friends and sisters, instead of just coworkers. That’s all they could ever be out there, doing work that they hated for a gem they hated even more.

Eff was sitting on Chip’s back in triumph, refusing to move until Chip gave up, which pride would never allow for. Elle was supervising the sparring match in case they got too rough or in case Holly showed up, while also attempting to amuse Gee in the process; she was great as a leader, but lacking in the romance department. Jay was laying in the cubby below her, pretending to be attentive but dozing off every few minutes. After a stressful several days atop the station—a job she wasn’t nearly as familiar with as the Betas—her exhaustion was understandable. Eye was sitting in one of the bottom cubbies, braiding Bandit’s hair as she sat on the floor, talking quietly with one of her sisters, who also went by Bandit.

She could remember times like this from Prime, albeit not as relaxed as they had all emerged well after the rebellion began. If she closed her eyes for a moment, it would almost feel like home.

Everyone froze and tensed instinctively as the doors hissed open, despite the lack of Holly’s telltale approach, and visibly relaxed when Skinny and Carnelian sauntered through the door. In true Jasper fashion, Skinny had her arms crossed and a mildly peeved expression on her face, while Carnie chattered on about something, clinging to Skinny’s hand one moment and gesturing wildly the next. The two Jaspers sitting on the floor looked up at their leader and comrade in amusement, poised to tease them at any moment.

“Hey, cuties!” 8XB called first, waving her hand lazily from her perch. “Fancy seeing you here!”

Skinny smirked up at her, waving her free hand dismissively as the two Jaspers echoed similar remarks, and made her way towards Elle and Gee, skirting carefully around the wrestling duo at their feet. Carnie looked as if she wanted to join in the fray--she'd certainly proven herself capable of taking a beating from larger gems in the past--but she continued to follow dutifully behind Skinny. Meanwhile, 8XB's column leader was so focused on keeping Gee’s attention that she didn’t even notice the two approach, even with Carnie’s yammering. Even Gee seemed to notice them, trying to interrupt Elle as politely as possible.

“Hey, Elle?” Skinny asked for the third time, exasperation in her voice.

“Wha—? Oh, Skinny.” Elle flushed, clearly embarrassed, as Gee stifled a laugh from behind, stepping away to let them talk. Her skin grew an even darker shade of purple as Carnelian  _harrumphed_  from her below, crossing her arms dejectedly at being forgotten. “A-and Carnie…um…”

Skinny waved her hand again, growing serious. “We have to talk.”

There was a whispered conversation after that, so quiet that 8XB couldn’t hear—try as she might, without being too obvious—but judging by darkening look on Elle’s face, it wasn’t difficult to guess who the subject was. Cee had been acting strange for quite a while now, so it was only a matter of time until things started coming to light. Deciding that, as her column neighbor, she had a right to know what was up with her, 8XB hauled herself out of the cubby and sprinted over to where the others were talking. Everyone else in the room had already disregarded the disturbance, going back to the languid, false sense of peace that they had constructed for that day.

As she came upon the group, Elle’s mood had already changed significantly, and she shook her head in disbelief. “What it the cosmos is wrong with her?”

“What happened?” 8XB cut in, trying and failing to keep the concern from her voice.

“Cee’s lost her mind,” Skinny sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I saw her whispering with someone in the emptiest part of the station, by one of the least used doors to the other side.”

“She’s seeing a Calcite!” Carnelian cut in; always full of energy, she liked to cling to any sort of drama to stave off the profound boredom she often found herself in.

“Allegedly.”

Carnie glowered momentarily, raising her fist angrily. "And she called Skinny a stupid defect, that jerk!" Turning to Skinny, she continued vindictively, "I told ya, I should have broken her knees when I had a chance!"

Skinny patted her head, placating the smaller gem with a chuckle. "Right, that would have made things so much easier."

8XB couldn’t help but remember that time, decades ago—had it really been so long?—when she and Cee were sent to deal with the shady band organics. Cee had looked like she was about to toss the lot of them out the airlock, and not knowing what to do, 8XB dismissed her. She had no idea where Cee went afterwards, only that the she wasn’t the greatest concern at the moment. When she finally managed to reason with them and went to look for her wayward column mate, she was completely engrossed by a Calcite she had never seen before. Pink.

She frowned deeply, hoping that her assumptions weren’t true. It was one thing for the Quartzes to mingle on their own side of the station, but coming and going like this between sides was incredibly risky. No one knew how well the doors were monitored or how vigilant the Calcites were; this was bad enough, but the fact that she hid this from them for so long made it so much worse.

“I’ll go look for her,” 8XB offered, catching the others by surprise.

Elle’s jaw twitched as she continued to stew on this new realization. “Why’s that? I think I wanna have nice chat with her first.”

“Elle…” Skinny placed a hand on the Amethyst’s shoulder, which was promptly brushed away. The Amethysts rarely ever let their tempers get the better of them, that is, until the little things they let roll off their backs got too much to handle, and it had been glaringly obvious as of late that Cee's unusual behavior was getting to Elle, to all of the 8s. Indeed, 8XB noticed that the already quiet barracks had grown silent, as the rest of the occupants realized what was going on, even Eff had relinquished her place atop Chip, all of them watching to see what their leader would do.

To their surprise, Elle turned to 8XB. "Go on," she conceded. "She's more likely to listen to you than me; just try not to get caught." She smirked a little. "Can't have two of my team members getting in trouble with Holly, making us all look bad."

Skinny and Carnelian gave her cursory directions to where they found Cee and where she went, although it didn't help much now. Cee could have gone anywhere in the station in the time it took the two to make it back to the barracks, although 8XB could narrow it down to the least inhabited areas, particularly areas where Holly was least likely to go. She almost felt bad, dragging her rebellious companion to the barracks just to be seriously scolded by Elle and glared at by the others, emphasis on "almost." Even as her closest ally in this situation, she couldn't say that she wasn't a little hurt by the deception, as well.

Getting as much information as she was going to get from the Betas' brief encounter, 8XB dashed from the barracks, intent on finding Cee as quickly as she could.

* * *

8XC charged down the brightly-lit hall, fists trembling with repressed rage and lingering mortification, a thin sliver of restraint being the only thing keeping her from plowing them through the nearest wall.

 _That skinny brat,_ she fumed, clenching her fists harder. _She’s lucky I didn’t deck her right there, whether she was right or not. Some gems need to learn to mind their own business._

She couldn’t even blame Skinny for the intrusion, however—after all, 8XC was the one sneaking around (though, with the presence of Carnelian, it was debatable whether the Beta gems were on any official business)—and the idea only made her angrier. She had already been disappointed that her latest rendezvous had to be cut short, and frustrated over her entire situation, only to have her secret discovered. In all honesty, she was planning to tell Elle about Pinkie as soon as she was able to make a solid case for her column mates and, hopefully, for the others as well.

She and Pinkie had been meeting in an unused utility closet at odd intervals, visits very rare and difficult to plan, given the distance of their occupations. Nothing really happened in these secret meetings, nothing like the other Amethysts liked to risk doing (she couldn’t help but groan every time she thought about it), but what did happen was just as dangerous. Sneaking away from their respective duties was enough to warrant severe punishment, but their precious time was spent discussing subjects that were all but forbidden in gem society. Even living in isolation, with propaganda being shoved down their throats at every possible opportunity, there was always a way to find information. Conspiracies, inconsistencies in recorded events, corruption within the higher ranks, the low-points of the Diamonds themselves…no topic was off-limits. They were completely different in personality, but 8XC knew a like-mind when she saw one, one that wasn’t blind to the ills of Homeworld.

Their most frequented topic was one that she herself had rarely considered in her centuries on Earth, and even less in her occupation at Pink Diamond’s menagerie: the Rose Quartz soldiers. By the time 8XC and her platoon emerged, the Rose Quartzes had been gone for nearly 500 years, with no explanation offered for their disappearance. They had greater concerns, anyway, having been made in the midst of a losing battle with persistent rebel forces who continued to tear away at Homeworld’s forces.

She never thought about them because she had never known them, except one, who was the very definition of villainy. But Pinky, she was very familiar with the soldiers and their fates.

Pinky was a little resistant to the subject at first; it appeared that the topic was, as an unspoken rule, forbidden among the Calcites. It was obvious that the gems in charge—the Diamonds, the Agates—were bent on making sure these gems were wiped from existence, continuing on only in the memories of gems who had known them, memories that would fade with time. But once she began to speak, the story seemed to pour from her. They were kind gems who would tell the Calcites of their incredible feats and funny misadventures on Earth, and they rotated shifts on their home colony and at their Diamond’s zoo. But their demeanors changed when news of a brewing rebellion, carried by gossiping aristocrats and visiting soldiers, reached the station. The Agates quickly shut up any sort of communication of the affair until it was officially announced, but the suspicion was already planted, directed at the very soldiers they had trusted just moments ago. Pinky, ashamed, had admitted to feeling the same as her co-workers, but it was only natural to fear the worst when your stable, safe world has been turned upside down.

And then, just as quickly as the news came, the soldiers began to vanish. At first, the Calcites expected it as deployment to Earth to deal with the growing disturbance, but the rumors continued to fly.

“Some say the soldiers are still here,” Pinky had explained, apprehension and a pinch of hope on her pale pink face. “Every one of them, all innocent, sent from Earth to be tried as criminals, imprisoned, and forgotten.”

8XC didn’t want to believe it, but it was too plausible to ignore. Pink wasn’t one to shatter her own gems with reckless abandon, and although it was a threat to keep the Rose Quartzes around—on the off-chance that the rebel leader could charm her sisters into joining her—8XC knew that reprogramming and recycling were both common practices in response to insubordination. It was possible that Pink wanted to hide the Roses away until after the war, and there wasn’t a better place to hide unwanted soldiers than this hunk of metal. This prison.

She came to a stop on a particularly quiet hallway, the energy radiating from the large double doors in the middle making her hair stand on end. All that she could hear was the electric hum of energy coursing through the walls, and something else. Within the room…Pink Diamond’s private quarters.

 _Blue Diamond._ 8XC mentally slapped herself for forgetting about Blue’s presence at the station.

Although she couldn’t make out the nature of the sound, she knew that it was something she wasn’t meant to witness. It started quiet at first, then grew in intensity. She was sobbing, wailing until 8XC felt as if the sobs were tearing through her own chest, until she could hardly stand with the weight of her grief. It was a great effort just to slip into the nearest room, thankfully empty, before collapsing against the doorway. She pressed her face against the frame, shuddering at the sheer strength of Blue’s emotions.

 

_“But it doesn’t make any sense!” Pink Calcite cried. “Visiting aristocrats have been in there plenty of times afterwards and not one word has been mentioned of the Rose Quartzes.”_

_8XC felt that old paranoia grab her by the shoulder and shove her across the room, pacing from one end to the other in agitation. No, it didn’t make sense until one looked at it in context, taking all that Homeworld had done to demoralize and erase them from the public consciousness. There was no way to know whether the soldiers were bubbled within the inner sanctums of Pink’s station, but one thing was for certain._

_“They don’t care,” she monotoned morosely. “They never did. They’re so self-absorbed and so distracted by their Diamond that they don’t even bother to consider who’s floating right above their heads! They don’t care about them, just like they don’t care about us.” She stopped in the area she had been sitting in previously, sliding down the wall in despair. “This place is a prison.”_

 

It seemed that her subconscious led her exactly where she wanted to be, at both the best and the worst of times. Blue Diamond was in there, but it was the only time the doors would be opened. Just a peek inside is all it would take, if she could only keep the tears from her eyes.

“C-Cee?”

She could hardly work up the will—and if she was being honest with herself, the courage—to face the voice, but her pride wouldn’t allow her to ignore it. Although, she already knew who it was, even before the gem opened her mouth, and her very presence was enough to make her feel her first bout of shame since she started this affair. To be discovered by those Betas was one thing, but Bee? The hurt look on her face said it all.

“What in the cosmos is wrong with you?” She whispered sharply, crouching beside her prostrate form and grasping her shoulder tightly, voice angry but tinged with concern. “Get up.”

The words didn’t want to come at first, but as Bee began to haul her up by her arm, 8XC let out a panicked, “wait! There’s something I need to see!”

“But Blue Diamond!” Bee relented, trying to drag her down the hall. “I doubt she’ll be happy about you being camped out right there instead of doing your job.”

“Just trust me!”

“Why should I?”

Finally finding her feet, 8XC ground in her heels and pulled away from her column mate. “Please…” she pleaded. “I—I’m sorry, Bee, I really am. I just…I didn’t think you all would understand, and we already had problems before and I didn’t want anyone to get in trouble…I thought it was better that you didn’t know.” Real tears were threatening to form now, and she begged the stars to keep them from falling, not now. “All I managed to do was make things worse. I’m sorry.”

To her surprise, Bee started to laugh gently, pulling 8XC into an embrace before she could get mad. “Aw, Cee, do you really like her that much?”

“No! I mean, it’s not that,” she replied, reluctantly hugging her back and resting her chin on the other’s shoulder. “I do like her a lot because she thinks in the same way I do and she understands how I feel about things, even when everyone else doesn’t. No one ever bothers thinking about the things that affect us and everyone else, only that we can’t do anything about it. There’s some things even I didn’t consider until I met her. She makes me feel like I’m not as crazy as you all think I am.”

“We don’t think you’re crazy…” Bee denied with conviction at first, trailing off at the end hesitantly. “Well, I don’t think you’re crazy.”

Finally allowing herself to relax into the embrace, 8XC couldn’t help but chuckle. “I know you don’t. That’s why you’re my best friend.”

“And here I thought it was because our exit holes are closest together!”

They stood like this for a moment, until the muffled sound of voices made them jump apart in fear, having forgotten all about the powerful matriarch who was mourning just down the hall. There was a soft, echoing command and an even softer affirmation, pattering footsteps, and the _whoosh_ of sliding doors before the two could even think to act, diving back into the room that 8XC had previously been hiding in. As much as Bee urged 8XC to close the doors until their Diamond was gone, however, she had to see, she had to know.

From their vantage point, she could just catch a glimpse inside the room, but she didn’t dare risk getting a better look until she was sure she could get away with it. And she certainly wanted Bee to see it, too, at least to give her story held more validity with a second witness.

Blue Diamond exited first, hood drawn over her eyes and hands tucked inside her enormous sleeves, the very image of mystery, but 8XC knew that it was all a disguise. How could she act so cold when, just a moment ago, she was letting out the most heart wrenching sobs she had ever heard. Even after experiencing something like that, 8XC was terrified to be in the presence of such an imposing gem; Bee was practically quaking in fear beside her. Even Blue’s Pearl, who exited behind her, seemed to waver in her composure, shoulders hunched wearily.

“Pearl, lock the door.” The Diamond ordered, and the Pearl began to comply. They had to act fast.

As discretely as possible for such an obtrusive gem, 8XC stood and sidled to the edge of the doorway, with Bee right behind her, standing on her toes to peer over her head. At first, she couldn’t see anything beyond the soft pink glow from within, the inside partially obscured by the haze. Then, as her eyes adjusted, 8XC realized what she was looking at.

The glow was caused by the stations light bouncing off of thousands of gems, imprisoned in bubbles for who knew how long. From above, she heard Bee breath a mystified “oh my stars,” and 8XC couldn’t agree more. It was as horrifying as it was beautiful, even from at this distance; how any gem could walk in there and completely ignore it was beyond her, but the doors slid shut before she could speculate further. And just like that, Blue and her Pearl were gone, leaving the two soldiers completely speechless, the image of forgotten, innocent gems ingrained in their minds.

They sat within the empty room for a moment after that, neither speaking as they continued to process the implications of this discovery. Have they really been there this whole time? Did no one really care enough to ask for something to be done? Could it have just as easily been them in there, as well?

“We need to tell the others,” Bee stated hollowly, still deep in thought.

It felt as if a giant weight had been lifted from 8XC’s shoulders as she agreed. “Yeah, we should.”

“…Everything?” She cocked an eyebrow quizzically. “Even about your little Calcite friend?”

8XC groaned, feeling irritated yet lighter than air. “I guess they could use a little backstory.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Sobs* I did it. I finished it. I went through like three writers' blocks and I had papers and finals to focus on and then I was brain dead after the semester was over, but I finally finished this chapter! I swear, I've half written this chapter so many times, just to completely scrap my idea and start over, you would not believe! Thanks for reading, and I'll try not to take so long next time. Now that I've graduated with my associates and I don't plan on starting my bachelors until the Fall, it shouldn't be a problem!


	13. It's Time to Fight Back (Part 1)

8XL paced at the edges of the crowded barracks, cursing Eff for not taking this commitment seriously. How was this ever going to work if she couldn’t even arrive on time?

The discovery of the bubbled Rose Quartz gems hardly came as a surprise to the soldiers—indeed, they had been more shocked by Cee’s secret relationship with one of the illusive Pink Calcites—but it did stir the frustration and anger that had been simmering below the surface. Many had been pushing these feelings aside from the beginning, believing that they deserved nothing more than what they received after their great failure on Earth. Now, with confirmation that Homeworld had truly left these innocent gems as forgotten relics of a bygone era, the possibility of the same happening to them suddenly felt more real.

That could have easily been them. That could _still_ be them…or worse.

Inaction was not an option. They couldn’t help these gems now, not without committing treason in the process, but there was still time to help themselves. The only question was how.

Their plan wasn’t fool proof. Indeed, Holly’s rules against any sort of activities outside of her assigned duties were as strict as one could imagine and if they were discovered in the act, the punishment would surely be severe. 8XL couldn’t help but wonder if Holly was paranoid herself, being in charge of so many soldiers with nothing but her Diamond-given authority keeping her safe. If she were so concerned, however, one would think that she would be a little nicer to her charges.

 _Where is she?_ 8XL thought irritably, watching the group grow restless. At this rate, they would have all drifted back to their posts before the demonstration could even begin. If Eff proved to be unreliable, then she would have to put her trust in someone else, yet she didn’t know any of the others nearly as well as those in her own team. If this was going to work, they had to get started immediately, or else the tiny bit of resolve that had formed would be lost again.

 _“What is the meaning of this?!”_ Came Holly’s shrill demand, her heels stabbing the floor sharply.

Everyone recoiled and turned to face their commander, jumping to attention or too frozen in fear to move.

Although she couldn’t see Holly from her vantage point, 8XL began to realize what had happened, as her mortification was replaced with irritation. At the back of the room, there was a mixture of reactions inappropriate to the situation, ranging from raucous laughter to angry complaints. As she skirted around the crowd, 8XL beheld what looked like Holly, hands on her hips and a wicked, sharp-toothed grin on her face. She had to admit, it was a convincing act, if not for Eff’s purple skin and the gem on her cheek. It was a struggle trying to keep a stern face at the sight of such foolishness.

“Really, Eff?” she called in exasperation.

“Hey, with what I’m gonna put ya through, you gotta learn to keep on your toes,” 8XF stated saucily, switching to Holly’s voice, “or else I’ll throw you out the airlock like the useless chunks of Earth you are!” Then, she marched towards the front of the room, gaining herself more surprised reactions, only shapeshifting back to her normal form when she turned to face the others.

She was surprisingly patient with the group, joking and laughing while still attempting to quiet them with subtle but effective gestures. Eff certainly wasn’t leader material, but she definitely had a way with the Amethysts outside their column that none of the others possessed. The apprehension 8XL had felt earlier was beginning to wane.

Once the room had quieted, Eff began to speak. “Listen up, ladies!” She began. “I don’t know about you, but I’m real tired of sitting around waiting for the Diamonds to give our sorry butts some real work.” Several Amethysts cried out their dissent, while others stared back uncertainly. She plowed on. “I’ve been talking with Elle and Cee about it the past few days, and we have a proposition for you all.”

In one swift movement, she pressed a hand to her gem and brought it down again swiftly, a viciously spiked, short-handled mace materializing in her hands. “We’re gonna put ourselves to work! “Since Holly obviously isn’t gonna do her job, I think it’s time we take matters into our own hands. Yeah, I get that those humans need this station to stay safe and in working order to survive, but let’s face the facts: we aren’t Peridots! We aren’t Calcites! We. Are. Quartz. Soldiers. And it’s time we started acting like it!”

It sounded like a reasonable idea, and 8XL could see that most of the group was interested, but there was still that fear that prevented them from doing anything worthwhile, and it all revolved around their commander. They could only imagine what kind of fit Holly would throw if she saw one of them with her weapon out, let alone several of them in active combat. And what would they do about the mess, as many of them had heavy, incredibly destructive weapons that would certainly cause damage?

As if reading their minds, Eff brought her mace down against the floor as hard as she could, then swung it around to connect with the wall. The gems in the front row could confirm that it didn’t even leave a scratch, as if these barracks had been made to take a beating.

“See, there’s no need to worry about evidence, as long as you know how to put your weapon away real quick,” she laughed.

“And what about the noise?” One interjected. “Holly’s not the brightest Agate, but she ain’t deaf.”

Eff waved her hand dismissively. “Easy. We’ll spar in the other barrack. She never goes down there, and just in case she does, we’ll have a couple gems posted at the door.”

“We need to do something,” Cee pipped up. She had been sitting quietly in one of the cubbies, unparticipating in this rally up until this point. It had been like this ever since the confession and 8XL’s follow-up reprimand, as if all the fight had left her rebellious column mate. She swung her legs over the edge to face the group. “Most of us haven’t even raised a fist since the war, let alone wield a weapon, and how can we call ourselves Quartz soldiers if we can’t even defend ourselves?”

“From what?” Another asked, skeptical but nervous.

Cee sighed. “Does it matter? We’re gonna have to fight again eventually, no matter what happens, and we have to be ready!”

“Hey, Split!” 8XL called addressing the Jasper in the midst of the Amethysts. “What do you Betas always say?”

“We keep going and never give up,” Split recited automatically, as if the words had been ingrained in consciousness. “No matter the odds. We fight until the battle is won, or until we’re reduced to shards.”

Again, no one was apt to fight to the death as the Beta had depicted, but her words seemed to seal their decision. It wasn’t something that would be forced on anyone that wasn’t interested, 8XL would make sure of that, but this first step was imperative. The tension and excitement was palpable among the soldiers in equal portions, as Eff began to plan aloud, calling on any other brawlers—such as herself—for help. Times, shifts, routines, drills, even sparring events…where was this united effort before?

8XL couldn’t complain. Things were finally being put into motion, and surprisingly, she felt that she was ready to take on the challenge.

 

“Agh!”

“Watch it!”

“Are you tryin’ to shatter me?!”

To say the least, their first training session was an absolute mess, as the Quartz soldiers fumbled and swung, testing weapons they had long since grown unfamiliar with. It was such chaos that 8XF had to limit them to three groups at a time, making it easier to keep watch in case someone lost control entirely. The last thing she wanted was having to explain to Holly why someone’s form had dissipated, when they were supposed to be languishing in exhausted despair until she assigned them to their next shifts.

It seemed that the only gem that was holding her own decently was Chip, 8XF’s budding prodigy. She was lucky enough to have brass knuckles as a weapon, something that sat close to her fist and wasn’t nearly as unwieldy as the swords, spears, and clubs the others sported. Although she was never able to beat a gem as forceful and energetic as 8XF, she definitely had an advantage against most of the other soldiers, even those that had maintained some of their skill over the years.

Chip decked another opponent before grinning crookedly at her mentor, and 8XF couldn’t help but smile proudly back.

Looking around the room, her smile began to wilt. _That’s it?_ She thought incredulously, her gaze sliding past the six combatants to the ten gems lounging sparsely around the room. Granted, she knew that the only gems she would get at a time were those who had either left their shift early to take part or were just off of their shift and not too beaten down to fight, but the for the first time? She would be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a little disappointed.

And that wasn’t even to mention the lack of interest from the Betas, whom she hadn’t seen all day. Even Split was dodgy about the whole affair, despite having spoken up at the meeting (although she had been called on). Most of the Primes heard stories of the Beta gems’ feats during the war, against all odds, and if they hadn’t then it was easy to assume that gems as defective as them didn’t survive the war on luck alone. How were they supposed to put up a united front if only a handful of Amethysts were actually interested in fighting?

She groaned and shook her head, deciding that there were more important things to worry about now, as Eye’s dagger nearly sliced through 9XK’s arm.

“Hey, time out!” 8XF called, pointing at the duo. “Aim for her weapon, Eye, not her body!”

“S-sorry!” Eye huffed, putting away her dagger entirely in embarrassment. “Let’s just try this free-handed, alright?”

9XK nodded and smirked, raising her fists up to her face. “Ready to get your ass kicked?”

“That’s some big talk for a gem who couldn’t even remember which way her weapon is supposed to face,” Eye mocked, and then it was on.

As much as she loved to watch her prodigy triumph again and again, she just had to observe the back and forth between these two gems. Eye was lighter on her feet than her slightly larger opponent, a little more perceptive to Kay’s attacks, but Kay punches were far more precise. Eye’s attack depended the most on how much her opponent was paying attention, and her main goal was to attack from behind. Kay’s gem placement—the small of her back—made her more aware of the dangers behind her, however, and every attempt at a victory was thwarted.

After a while of this, 8XF had no choice but to call it a draw, to which the two gems were secretly grateful. All the fighters were ready for a break, but at least everyone looked like they were having fun. Indeed, this was perhaps the most fun any of them had had in a long time, finally able to truly let out their energy in a constructive way. 8XF wasn’t one to brag, not seriously, but they were lucky she had kept up the fighting consistently after the war. She wasn’t anywhere near her peak condition and nowhere near perfect, but to see the improvement and growing passion in these gems—some of whom she didn’t even know well—was satisfying in a way she hadn’t experienced before.

Just as she was calling the next three groups up and asked for volunteers to guard the door, she heard distinct voices from outside. A moment later, Split, Cleft, and Tawny entered the room, all three of them looking uncomfortable and tense, but at least they were there.

“Hey! Betas!” 8XF called, waving her arm at them. “Glad you could make it!”

“We’re just here to watch,” Tawny stated quickly. “No fighting.”

There it was again: that disappointment trying to claw its way back to the surface. “Aw, what? That’s too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing you all in action.”

They glanced at one another uncertainly, but she couldn’t tell what sort of emotion was behind it. An aversion to rebellion? An unwillingness to partake in violence, after having witnessed so much during the war? Perhaps they didn’t feel adequate fighting alongside the Amethysts, but 8XF doubted it.

“We just wanted to talk to Skinny about it first,” Cleft answered simply, averting her gaze uncomfortably.

Tawny nodded. “Yeah, Skinny’s been real busy for a few days now, but we wanted to talk to hear what she had to say about this stuff.”

8XF grinned and welcomed them in anyway, feeling a little confused at their mannerisms. She was more friendly with the Betas than a lot of the other Primes—with Elle’s friendship with Skinny and Carnelian, it was inevitable—and while they’d always been a little standoffish, she’d never seen them act like this.

 _Maybe they’re just shy_ , she thought with a shrug, watching as they joined the group of spectators, no doubt to observe the competition for information to give to the other Betas to sway their opinion one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's yet another super late chapter. The second part is almost done, so you can look forward to that in the next couple days! After that, I think I'm going to do a time skip to really get to the meat of the matter, and finally to the big conclusion. Thanks for reading!


	14. It's Time to Fight Back (Part 2)

Oldie leaned back in her cubby, comfortably in her anonymity as she watched the action unfold below her. A small part of her long to be among them, honing her own skills right alongside her kindergarten mates, but she knew she would never truly feel welcome. Without a column to rally behind her, the fighting felt almost pointless.

It became increasingly obvious that there was a certain competitiveness among the Amethysts, if it hadn’t been obvious before. Older against younger, cut against cut, column against column, every spar brought its own showdown, making it a unique experience every time. It was miraculous that Holly never so much as suspected they were up to something, despite the excitement that these events always brought, the cheers and shouts and hurled abuse.

So, she continued to watch the sparring sessions when they occurred, holed up in one of the higher cubbies, ever indecisive.

Those 8s were certainly the stars here, even if the older Amethysts didn’t seem to care for it, in their quest to lift their own columns up. At that moment, she watched as one of those older groups faced off with column 9—who practically idolized the 8s at this point—and were met with a fairly even match. Chip seemed especially competent, even without her mentor looking after her, as she tipped a larger Amethyst over her shoulder and slammed her onto the ground. The others positively roared with excitement, urging her to do it again. Oldie couldn’t help but cheer as well, excited in spite of her dismal disinterest in participating herself.

The match ended as the 9s brought in a clear victory, so impressive that the losing column wasn’t even mad. Besides the few that were struggling to pry themselves off the ground, the others were positively giddy with excitement, begging the younger gems to teach them one move or another. The Amethyst in charge of the match—assigned by Eff—leapt down from her perch and held Chip’s arm aloft; she was the one who really stole the show, after all.

Then, the Amethyst cleared her throat and motioned for the group to settle down, just enough for them to hear her voice.

“Alright, alright! Listen up!” She shouted. “We’re gonna do somethin’ a little different next time. You better bring your best moves, ‘cause we’re planning an all-out brawl! We’re pulling out all the stops with this one!”

“So, another spar?” Another Amethyst quipped, gaining a few chuckles.

“A _competition,_ you geode,” her companion clarified, smacking her in the back of the head.

“Yeah, to see who gets us caught first!”

“Holly doesn’t even care!”

“When was the last time she left her office?”

“I think she’s finally cracked. Been rejected by Blue D. one too many times!”

“Hey!” The Amethyst in charge called. “No one’s getting caught, because we’re gonna have spies throughout the entire sector, and a couple by Holly’s door. No problem!”

Indeed, as Blue’s visits lessened once more, Holly’s demenor had certainly changed, but not in the way that any of them were expecting. Instead of taking her anger out on them and scheduling a whole list of unnecessary tasks, she instead retreated into her office. That was the premise for this whole competition: Holly stopped giving them tasks, and as the soldiers came back from their shifts, they accumulated in the barracks to a degree that hadn’t been seen since they first arrived at the station. They all knew that this melancholy would blow over and Holly would be her old, deplorable self, but for now it was worth taking advantage of the moment.

The more she thought about it, bolstered by the chatter below, the more her excitement rose. Even without a column, she couldn’t deny that there was something stirring at the very core of her being, a base trait that had been forced to lie dormant, calling out for her to do what she was made to do. Without so much as a second thought, she felt her weapon—a double-edged dagger, the length of her forearm—materialize in her fist. Looking down at her reflection in its pristine, crystalline surface, the feeling within her grew even stronger.

Maybe it was time for her to assimilate with the present again, find a new family to call her own, if any of those tight-knit columns of Prime would have her. It felt so wrong, both to try and replace those she had lost and to intrude where she wasn’t wanted, even if knew that none of them would turn her away, wouldn’t scorn her to her face. And that was what she feared.

And then her thoughts went to Carnelian, her one true friend in this entire place, and the other Betas.

And then her thoughts went to Carnelian, her one true friend in this entire place, and the other Betas. It wasn’t the first time she had considered that, maybe, she should try reaching out to them and forming a connection that she knew she wouldn’t get from her fellow Amethysts. She knew that they, especially Carnelian, would be happy to oblige; after all, the Betas were standoffish, but they weren’t heartless. Indeed, she suspected that their experiences during the war made them all too aware of how it felt to lose a column, a cut, and forced to move on.

Eyes refocusing, she noticed that she was smiling hopefully, and that was all the persuasion she needed, as she shimmied from her hiding spot and slipped amidst a crowd of gems who hardly noticed her.

 

“Hey Skins?”

Carnelian saw Skinny visibly tense at the sound of her voice, not a good sign. Ever since the training had started, she had been surprisingly scarce, made all the more surprising as Holly shirked her own duties. At this point, even the over-worked Betas were either finishing their shifts without further instruction or leaving their posts early when Holly failed to inspect their work. Everyone was gathered in the barracks enjoying a moment of relaxation, everyone but Skinny.

She was where Carnelian had least expected her to be: on the observation deck, curled up by the faceted window, her eyes following the tiny specks of humans going about their daily lives. They had snuck in there a few times out of curiosity, but it had never been something that Skinny was particularly interested in. In fact, it seemed like the sight of the familiar-but-not landscape and the living beings within it made her uncomfortable, to where she was eager to get going soon after they arrived, but now it seemed like she would rather be here alone than with the others.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, as they both stared out, ignoring the Amethysts that were gathered on the other side of the room, obviously giving them space, while still remaining close enough to hear their conversation. Carnelian moved a little closer.

“I’m sorry,” Skinny sighed, crossing her arms tightly.

Carnelian grabbed her elbow and tugged it gently. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Shutting me out,” Carnelian replied, trying to keep the harshness from her voice. She knew that there was something wrong and that it wasn’t anything to do with her, but she couldn’t deny that it hurt, seeing Skinny act so uncomfortably around her. They were so close a short time ago, the closest they had ever been, and now it was as if she didn’t even want to speak to her.

Slowly, Skinny loosened her grip, letting Carnelian slip in between her arms and hug her tightly around the waist. To her satisfaction, she felt Skinny melt against her, accepting the embrace.

“I’m sorry…” she repeated, without further explanation. At least it was a start.

Carnie pulled back a little bit, to gaze at her. “What’s wrong, huh? You’ve been like this since the Primes started meeting up to spar. The others…they wanna try it out, too, and they’ve tried asking you about it, but you’ve just been deflecting them. Do you wanna talk about it?”

She looked away. “it’s nothing…”

“Like hell, it’s nothing!” Carnelian snapped in frustration, making Skinny flinch. Softening again, she continued. “Come on, talk to me.”

Taking a deep breath, Skinny leveled her gaze at the smaller gem, something akin to fear in her eyes. “I…I guess…after so long not fighting…look, I never liked killing during the war, and at the thought of doing it again, I guess I just freaked out.” Her arms twitched as her defense mechanism tried to kick in, but instead of wrapping around her body, they wrapped around Carnie’s instead. “I’m terrified of the thought of having to sh-shatter another gem.”

“But that’s not what they’re doing,” Carnelian argued. “It’s just for practice!”

“Practice for what?” Skinny was beginning to look frantic. “I have no intention of fighting another war, Carn. I can’t do it. I can’t. I can’t… I don’t want to ever look at my weapon again, let alone wield it against someone, but I don’t want to hold anyone back because I’m a coward. That’s what I keep saying to the others: do what you want. I know it can be fun, and that’s most of the reason why the Primes started it in the first place, a-and why you all wanna do it, I just don’t…I don’t want to do it.” She fell forward again, pulling Carnelian back into the embrace and repeated once more, “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Carnelian soothed, twisting her body so the now curious Amethysts couldn’t see Skinny cry. “It’s alright, sweetie, no says you have to like it or even agree with it. We just ask because we care about what you think, and you’re our leader and everything, so it’s kinda a habit to—ugh, sorry, I’m bad at this. You’re better at comforting gems than I am.” Carnelian sighed. “You aren’t holding anyone back, just talk to the others about it—or I can do it for you—and they’ll understand. You won’t be holding them back, because they all have free will, ya know?”

Skinny sniffled. “Have the others really been waiting for me?”

“Kinda,” Carnelian answered, guilty knowing that wasn’t what Skinny wanted to hear. “The triplets have been going to the matches pretty regularly—with Bandit seeing 8XI and all—and Cleft, Split, and Tawny have all been a couple times, but for the most part, it just doesn’t feel right without you.” Hesitantly, she continued. “There’s a…competition, I think, that the Primes are planning for a few rotations from now. Would you be okay with watching for at least a little bit? So the others feel more comfortable with it?”

“That’s fine. “She shuttered, obviously trying to reign in her composure once more. “That’s good, great. I don’t have a problem with watching. A-and you don’t have to worry about talking to the others; I’ll go over there in a little bit and tell them myself.”

Carnelian shifted, letting one of Skinny’s arms slip from its resting place on her shoulder and onto her lap, interlocking their fingers. “We can do it together.”

 

Preparations for the match were set to begin the moment everyone was free of their work to ensure that no one was left out of the festivities. 8XF was determined to make the most of this short reprieve, an experience that the others wouldn’t soon forget.

She wasn’t stupid. She knew that this was going to be a great undertaking and that it would require a tremendous amount of patience and cooperation from the other Primes, but things began to be put into motion, 8XF discovered that it was far more work in practice than in concept. Thankfully, it was something that most of the Earth Quartzes were interested in and finding support from those around her was not difficult. Her biggest issue laid in keeping track of time and where everyone must be and when, so that no one was forgotten. She had four guard shifts planned at six different areas, including the door leading to the barracks where the fight would take place, two in the hangar (for posterity’s sake), and one a hall away from Holly’s office. After a certain amount of time had passed, she would send out the next set of gems to relieve the old, so that everyone had a chance to compete.

It was dizzying, to say the least, but somehow, she managed to at least plan it out in a way that made sense to the gems involved. Although it was designed to give everyone a chance, 8XF was more apt to choose gems that weren’t interested in competing, anyway, just in case. It was amazing how positively these soldiers accepted their jobs, ones that they would have loathed if Holly had ordered it. Of course, that was because this task was rewarding, both in the end result and in the simple act of deceit, whereas they would get nothing but abuse and neglect from their Agate.

The other 8s were doing their best to make sure this event went smoothly, too, spreading the word and directing as many gems as they could. As much as 8XF liked being the center of attention, it was nice having her column back her up. She wasn’t sure what she would have done without them.

She stood before the first batch of fighters and her first group of look-outs, relaying the day’s events. “Anything goes, as long as no one gets cracked, understand? No dissipating forms, no aiming for gems, not only ‘cause it’s a low blow, but ‘cause we can’t let Holly know what we’re doing _at all._ As far as she knows, we’re all quietly keeping this station running or waiting complacently in the barracks and she’s gotta keep thinking that.”

“What if it’s an accident?” One Amethyst asked.

8XF glared sternly at her. “How do you accidently crack someone’s gem if you aren’t aiming for it, huh?” The question was rhetorical, and no one answered her. “That’s what I thought. Just be careful, and I’ll step in if the rough housing gets too rough. As for the match, columns get to choose what they want to do: one-on-one, two-on-two, or column-against-column, one match at a time.”

“For how long?”

“Until we’re done or until we get caught! Now!” She clapped her hands together, calling everyone to attention. “Get to your stations!”

The others cheered excitedly, until the entire room was awash with noise, and that was when the fun truly began. The barracks were packed full of gems, crowding the floor space and spilling from the cubbies, all the way to the ceiling. 8XF tried to keep their shaky order from devolving into chaos while her look-outs took their positions, but it was getting to be too much for her to handle. Waiting by the panel beside the door, she waited anxiously for her final scout to respond.

Finally, to her relief, a short message scrawled across the screen, indicating that the most important guard—the one by Holly’s door—was in position. Just as the last of the gems were filtering into the room, 8XF bounded through the crowd and clamored up the wall high enough for her voice to carry.

“Ladies and brutes!” She announced to raucous cheers. “Let’s get ready to rumble!!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter was getting kinda long, so I'll make this event a 3 parter and then move on! I don't wanna rush through the action, after all. Thanks for reading!


	15. It's Time to Fight Back (Part 3)

8XL hung her head out of the barracks’ door as the festivities commenced within, tapping her fingers impatiently against the wall. _Where are they?_

As the Primes filed into the room, she constantly had to remind herself that the Betas were neither helpless nor her responsibility, that they were individuals that could make their own decisions that suited their own preferences, yet she couldn’t help but worry. Carnelian told her everything a couple of rotations ago, about the predicament that Skinny and the others were in, and that they talked about it. She told her that they would be there, but 8XL didn’t think to ask when or how long. All she mentioned was that they were going to fight.

There was a problem, however. She couldn’t recall any of them participating in the sparring matches, but that didn’t mean they didn’t practice elsewhere. And she could have sworn she saw a few of them watching a couple times, particularly the triplets. She supposed they would make a pretty good team against three of her own 8s, as it was inevitable that the two groups would fight against one another for fun and for familiarity’s sake. She groaned, bumping her forehead against the doorframe, thinking that it really shouldn’t be this difficult.

“Elle, whatcha doing over here?” She nearly dissipated her form as an arm was slung over her shoulder. Turning her head, she was immediately greeted with Gee’s smiling face. “The party’s in the other direction, silly.”

Great. As if her concern weren’t enough, now she had to deal with the baffling mix of emotions that often debilitated her when Gee was around.

“I, uh! I…I was just…waiting.” She stammered lamely, so quietly that she could hardly hear herself over Eff’s booming announcements and the crowd’s roaring reply. Louder, she continued. “Waiting for the Betas to show!”

“They aren’t here yet?!” Eye cried, bounding past them and bursting into the hallway.

Kay and Jay followed behind her, looking amused. “Don’t act so crazy, Eye, you’ll see her soon enough,” Jay teased, nudging her in the shoulder. “That Jasper’s a feisty one. Probably convinced the rest of them to show up fashionably late.”

“Bandit isn’t like that!” Eye objected, uncharacteristically defensive.

Kay scoffed, not unkindly, and stated, “please, she’s like the only Beta that’s willing to have a little fun, besides maybe Carn. She would _absolutely_ show up late just to mess with you.”

As if on cue, 8XL finally saw the group approaching, and what she saw next took her completely by surprise.

The Betas were a quiet, unapproachable bunch by Quartz standards, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth at that moment. The triplets led the way this time, arm in arm as the chatted excitedly about the day’s events. They were followed closely by Cleft, who was busy instigating a playful slap fight between Tawny and Sandy while Split watched, Carnelian perched on her shoulders and egging them on. The others followed suit in a similar manner: Ray, Sun, Ring, Stripes, Blank, and Exxes, with Skinny taking up the rear, looking more as 8XL had envisioned: arms crossed tightly, already regretting this excursion. It seemed that it wasn’t a team issue at all, but a Skinny issue that involved the whole team. As if to prove the point further, she saw Carnelian stop mid laugh to look back at the slender Jasper, frowning in concern. Skinny flashed her an unconvincingly tense smile.

Then, the triplet on the right looked away from the others for a moment, noticed the 8s standing outside the doorway, squealed (a noise none of the Amethysts had ever heard a Jasper make), and sprint towards Eye. She barely had time to open her arms before Bandit was between them, hanging onto her neck and wrapping her legs around the Amethyst’s midsection, causing them both to topple to the ground. The interaction was enough to make even Skinny laugh.

“Looks like someone’s happy to see me!” Eye laughed breathlessly, still a little stunned from the Jasper’s wild greeting.

Bandit flushed, smiling brightly. “Please, I’m just really looking forward to kicking your butt!”

“All right, you two,” 8XL interjected, trying to move them along so they didn’t miss any of the action. “Save it for the match.”

“Yeah, don’t forget to pull out the charm, B,” one of the other triplets laughed, as they both help the two of them up.

Just as they began to squeeze past spectators, the first match began. Although they couldn’t see what was going on, it was obvious that they had chosen to go all out for this one, column against column, and it seemed that they were seasoned fighters, too. Two groups of old-timers fighting for dominance, it was a battle the Primes knew all too well, as Eff loudly proclaimed the feats of each fighter, both in the war and during the present brawl. They hardly needed introduction, as they were the sort of legendary soldiers that were used to being talked about, but it added to the overall atmosphere. If anything, it riled the crowd up even more.

They found an empty corner with something of a view that the rest of the 8s occupied, save for Eff. It felt surreal, seeing so many gems in one spot. The last time this happened was when they had first arrived at the station, and no one was in the mood to play around, after what they had just experienced. In fact, 8XL couldn’t recall a time when everyone was this excited about anything; it far surpassed the hype they experienced on the brink of battle, when the energy crash and depression that followed was inevitable.

Putting it in this perspective made her feel almost…emotional, but in a good way.

“Awww, Ellie’s tearing up,” Gee teased, pulling her into a half hug and using her other hand to wipe away the tears 8XL didn’t even try to hide.

 

Skinny crawled into one of the cubbies and scooted to the back, hoping that the narrowed field of vision and the confined space would lend a little comfort. It didn’t.

The noise coming from every direction, the chanting, the jeering, it all reminded her of war, nothing like the scuffles they had at Beta. She could cherish an uneventful, sunbaked afternoon sparring with her kindergarten mates outside the Agates’ and Peridots’ supervision. This was too much. At the very least, the activity was overstimulating for a gem that preferred to take life at a leisurely pace, but her inner soldier was threatening to burst out and destroy whatever it was that had her so distressed, and she doubted the Primes would appreciate her walloping the competitors into submission.

With a crushing sense of longing, she was reminded of how much she missed her exit hole in Beta, and how it was probably long gone by now. Worn down to sand and blown away on the wind, all of it, until nothing was left but the injectors, piled into twisted metal heaps.

 _It wouldn’t be so bad if Muscles was here,_ she thought bitterly, knowing that the huge Jasper wouldn’t have done anything to make the situation better. She would have condemned the whole thing, bullied the Amethysts into cancelling the whole event, and do everything shy of tattling on them to Holly, though she would have certainly used it as a threat. A small smile crept across her face, remembering how earnest she had been about doing the right thing and being as infallible as everyone expected her to be. There were no such expectations put on Skinny, and perhaps that was why she had grown so complacent, so unable to deal with something as simple as this.

As the fighting commenced, she couldn’t even bring herself to listen to it, and as much as she tried to separate her own feelings from those of her team, she couldn’t help but feel a little hurt by how they cheered right along with the crowd. Even Carnelian was getting into it, as much as if not more than the others, clambering onto gems’ shoulders to get a better view of the fight. That had to hurt most of all, as ridiculous as it was.

From what she could tell, they were two older groups of Amethysts, going all out for the first fight.

“And here comes 3XG with her signature move: a dual-wielding charger!” Eff shouted, followed by the high-pitched whine of a spin dash screeching against the floor, no doubt using her weapons as leverage.

 _Some signature move_ , Skinny scoffed in her head. It was one of the most common tricks on the battlefield, but this crowd, deprived of any form of excitement for millennia, was eating it up. She caught a flash of a blade amid a spiraling blur in a gap in the group, and then a great crash a couple seconds later, followed by a sympathetic groan from the gathered gems.

“AND DEFLECTED BY 4XH!!!” Eff roared, met with deafening cries of agreement. “Now _that’s_ one impressive shield! Wait! Oooh that’s gotta hurt! Looks like 3XG has once again made it out on top!”

It was like this was all some joke that everyone was in on but her, a joke where she got the gist of it but failed to see the humor. The raucous cheers following the distressed grunts and clashing weapons felt like a mockery of everything they’d gone through, as if the war never happened and the only purpose they had for their inherent combat skills was for entertainment. Given all this, she had really expected to be angry, to feel compelled to lash out or to leave during the first round, but instead she felt sick to her stomach. That gut feeling she had always entrusted her life to was telling her to run or fight, save her crew and herself, and it was getting in the way of her and everyone else’s fun.

“Can I stand here?” She heard someone ask, realizing with a start that the question was directed at her. An Amethyst peeked into the cubby nervously. “I mean, with you? N-not with you, exactly, but with your group. Ugh, what am I trying to say?!” At Skinny’s bewildered gaze, she stopped, took a deep breath, and began again. “Do you mind if I join you Betas?”

“Oldie?” She asked, as familiarity struck her. “I mean…Of course, you can.” Skinny replied simply, surprised to see the relief wash over her face.

“You really mean it?” She asked.

Skinny laughed, her previous worries momentarily forgotten. “Well sure, any friend of Carnie is a friend of ours, as long as you aren’t too annoying. But she said you weren’t even coming to the match.”

Oldie rubbed the back of her neck self-consciously. “I changed my mind a few times in the last couple rotations. I just didn’t want to go in alone, ya know? Fighting feels so wrong without my column, and I never felt like I belonged with the other Primes since I lost ‘em. I feel like I fit in more with you Betas than my own kindergarten mates, isn’t that funny?” She looked away sadly, and Skinny could practically see her resolve draining from her face.

“Well, if you think about it, we’re technically from the same kindergarten,” Skinny reasoned, making the older gem pause for thought. “You could consider the Earth our kindergarten, and Beta and Prime are just a couple parts of it. Heck, we’re even from the same landmass! And all us Betas are misfits, which means you fit right in.”

Oldie smiled a little bashfully and crouched on the floor in front of the cubby, settling in for a conversation. Skinny didn’t mind, as talking provided her with a distraction from her current issues; that is, unless, the topic was about the very issues she was trying to avoid.

“What’re you doing in here, if you don’t mind my asking?”

 _Hiding_ , she thought bitterly, but instead she answered, “I’m just waiting for this thing to be over. Not too interested.”

“Oh, well that’s a shame.” Oldie sighed. “I was dying to see you in action.”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to die a little longer.” She offered a teasing smile, not wanting to be short with someone she’d just offered kindness to and invited into her group. Oldie was a safe gem to talk to—Carnelian told her as much, at length—and as gentle as a soldier could be; there was no need to harbor any discomfort around her.

They spent the rest of this match, as well as a few that followed, talking about lighter subjects from the past, with Skinny recounting the simple moments from Beta and Oldie talking about her short experience before the war. She almost felt bad distracting her from the fight, knowing that Oldie didn’t ask to join the group so that they could have a nice long talk about it. As long as she had her attention, however, she was a good gem to vent to.

 

“Alright, let’s take a short break!” Eff called, gaining a smattering of complaints and agreements in return. It was time yet again to get a good look at the state of their security, as well as a good way to let the audience decompress before the next big event.

Carnelian was already feeling jittery from the excitement, itching to get out on the floor herself and finally show everyone what she was made of. It wasn’t that she felt she needed to prove herself to anyone—although, if she was being honest with herself, that was probably a small part of it—but she always felt it was a shame for them to know her as the defective, one-of-a-kind Beta without a column without seeing her show-stopping moves. She wanted to be the center of attention for something other than being an anomaly, a wild freak without an off button.

Her only regret was that she wouldn’t be tag-teaming with Skinny, something she had desperately wanted during the war but never having the courage to voice. It was always the same: they ran into each other on the battlefield while Carnelian was being pursued by a threat and Skinny would do everything in her power to keep her out of harm’s way. She never even gave her a chance to defend herself half the time, certainly not wasting her energy to return the favor. Skinny was her hero, and Carnelian was simultaneously the damsel in distress and the sidekick, but not this time.

No, without Skinny, she would be the one to lead whoever decided to join her in the ring, and the prospect of such responsibility, though simulated responsibility, left her both nervous and buzzing with anticipation. She was ready for this.

There had been no established set of events. A couple groups simply informed Eff that they would be going first, and the order followed from there, traveling in a loose counter-clockwise rotation around the room. Carnelian was terrible at math, but she knew that their turn was coming up; just a couple more matches and it would be their turn: The Betas against the Primes of column 8, it had a nice ring to it. Really, she was just excited to wallop someone with her club without any negative repercussions, if she aimed for the knees and not for the gems.

Coming back guiltily to the moment, she turned to see how Skinny was holding up. To her delight, she saw that she wasn’t as distressed as she had seemed when they walked in, not to mention the fact that she was finally having an actual conversation from one her best Amethyst friends. Jumping down from her perch atop Split’s shoulders, she ran up to the two and threw her arms around the Amethyst’s leg.

“Hey, you made it!” She cried. “Does this mean you’re gonna fight with us?!”

“You know it, Red!” Oldie chuckled, ruffling her hair. “And Skinny’s gonna cheer us on, right?”

Skinny sighed deeply, giving her a resolute nod. “What kind of leader would I be if I didn’t at least try to be there for my team?”

This was better than she could have asked for, and she was proud of Skinny for making an effort, although she was just proud of her for being here at all. Pushing past Oldie, she gave Skinny a quick hug to show her appreciation. The others began to gravitate towards them now, all of them reflecting Carnie’s enthusiasm for the coming fight, as well as Skinny’s change of heart and the addition of a new teammate. Both the Betas and the column 8s gathered at the back of the barracks as gems milled around them, imagining all the ways in which they would take each other down and how they would drink up the victory afterwards.

It was a shame Eff was too busy with her guards to participate. It seemed like the type of conversation she would be interested in.

“Well isn’t this nice?” She heard an Amethyst ask, who turned out to be one of the hot-shots from before. She was one of the more imposing Amethysts, which an ugly scratch along the surface of her gem that was just shy of a crack. Carnelian reached for her own gem subconsciously, cringing at the sight,

There was something about the way she stated the question that made 8XL turn to her in irritation, and made the Betas grow quiet and defensive. “What do you want, 3XG?” Elle fired back.

“I just think it’s cute,” 3XG replied with a shrug, “that you 8s pity these Betas enough to let them in on your strategies. Are ya gonna let them win, too?” She looked down at them condescendingly, meaning for it to be a jab at the 8s as well as at the Betas. Knowing her kindergarten mates, Carnelian feared that there was going to be a scene at any moment. She could already feel the others bristling around her, even and especially the Amethysts, Oldie most of all. Of all of them, she was the one that would be the most familiar with this gem and her cronies, who snickered about them a safe distance away.

“Considering what they’ve been through, I don’t think that’s necessary,” Oldie stated stated, coming to the Betas’ defense.

“Yeah! In fact, they might just have to go easy on _us_. They didn’t survive for nothing.” Elle added.

“Riiiight,” She drawled, zeroing in on the one gem in the group who refused to react instead; Skinny met her bored gaze with an icy glare. “And I suppose this one survived by cheering you all on?”

Skinny refused to take the bait, never breaking the glare she had trained on the offending party, who didn’t know when to take a hint. Carnelian wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but she did know that this Amethyst was going to regret messing with the Betas.

“You didn’t stop them with your strength, that’s for sure,” She prodded further, smiling as if the gem before her was a young, inexperienced soldier, instead of a seasoned, traumatized veteran. “I’ll bet they probably took pity on you and let you li—”

Skinny lunged from her cubby and had the Amethyst pinned to the ground in a flash, so fast that no one registered what had happened until she had a mace mere inches from her head and a slender hand squeezing the back her neck. The look on Skinny’s face was neutral, but there was an intensity there in her eyes that both frightened and excited Carnie. She knew that this would mess her up later, but she was so happy to see her put this jerk in her place.

“Until you’ve been in the situation that I and my friends have been through,” she stated calmly, never breaking her grip, “I suggest you not finish that sentence. You’re lucky I have the self-control to keep from shoving this mace down your throat.”

“Get. Off.” The Amethyst gasped, earning a sharp jab to the face.

“I survived because I was smarter than the stupid boulders that decided to underestimate me,” Skinny spat, “same with the rest of my team, and you’d do well to remember that.”

The Amethyst managed to wrench her arm out of Skinny’s grasp easily, but she still didn’t dare lift her head from the ground, as Skinny raised her weapon even higher this time, ready to strike. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She cried, cringing against the floor. “I was just—”

“You were just high off victory and looking for some easy prey,” Skinny replied, but she removed her weapon and stepped back, letting the Amethyst scramble away from her. A faraway look replaced her anger, as she regarded her transgressor with something akin to sympathy. “I knew someone like you. Thought she was better than everyone else because that’s what she’d been told her whole existence. When she won, it was only an empty victory because that was what she was expected to do: win. When she lost, it felt like the end of the world. And she eventually pushed all of us away. Now we don’t know what happened to her, because she was too dedicated to what she felt she was supposed to be that she refused to save herself to lead us another day.”

“Why are you telling me this?” 3XG asked uncomfortably, unprepared for anything Skinny had to give her.

“Don’t be like her,” Skinny stated simply, offering no other explanation. She simply crossed her arms and leaned back, waiting for the Amethyst to retreat with her friends like the cowards they were.

There was a moment of stunned silence after the altercation, before the entire group burst into shouts and cheers of absolute disbelief at what just happened. One would think it was the most glorious thing they had ever witnessed with they way they reacted, which it probably came pretty close. After a moment like that, Carnelian wanted more than ever for Skinny to show off what she had. Even after thousands of years, she still had skill that was unsurpassed by even the oldest and most experienced Primes.

“I’ve never seen anyone stand up to one of them like that,” Oldie expressed, her face full of wonder. “Most of us just go along with it, but she really overstepped some boundaries with that one. You really put her in her place!”

“Eff’s gonna flip when she hears this.” Elle laughed and shook her head as Eff continued to talk obliviously with her spy network.

Indeed, it was one of the highlights of the day, as word spread about the ballsy Beta pinning one of Prime’s top warriors to the ground. 3XG handled it all with good humor, offering Skinny a better apology after the event was over. Not one to waste energy on holding long term grudges, Skinny gladly accepted, with the condition that she apologize to the other Betas, as well.

When it was their turn in the spotlight, the other gems were already buzzing about them, which was exactly what Carnelian liked to hear. After that altercation, even the 8s were a little weary of their Beta opponents, but not so much that they felt intimidated enough to forfeit. On the contrary, they almost seemed honored to fight against them, saluting them as they made their way to their side of the ring. For posterity’s sake, Elle decided to stay behind as well, leaving both groups without their leaders, forced to subsist on their own abilities at team work.

Carnelian summoned her club and threw it nonchalantly over her shoulder, standing in front of the other Betas as she exuded more confidence than she had felt in a long time, if ever. Skinny’s words stirred something in her that she hadn’t felt in a long time, if ever. As Eff hyped the crowd, something became very clear to Carnie: she was a survivor, and some gems dealt with that knowledge in different ways. Skinny acknowledged her resilience, but she feared letting it get to her head, lest she become disillusioned by it. Carnelian was the opposite, always feeling as if she was alive by sheer luck alone, and feeling that it didn’t matter whether she was cautious or not. Whatever happens will happen, whether she tries to prevent it or not. That was what made her so unpredictable.

But it wasn’t just that. Sure, luck had something to do with it on a basic level—the way she came out of the ground was purely by chance—but it was more about skill, smarts, and the simple will to live that kept her going, and she was determined to keep that firmly ingrained in her mind the next time she decided to be hard on herself.

She shared one last smirk across enemy lines with Gee, the 8s chosen leader for this battle, as she shouldered her club nonchalantly. Eff allowed someone else to take her place as announcer as she herself slipped in their midst, cracking her knuckles and eyeing Tawny appraisingly.

“This is gonna be so much fun,” Carnelian said to herself, her grin widening as the announcer allowed them to commence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to fit so much into this chapter, oh my god. It's over 4000 words. I stayed up so late to finish this, too. I'm sorry I keep writing so much about Skinny and Carnelian, I just love them so much. Things will start being put into motion in the next chapter, I promise! Thanks for reading!


	16. It's Time to Fight Back (Final)

_Carnelian was terrified out of her mind._

_She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting in those dark, quiet moments before her emergence, but it certainly wasn’t the situation she burst into. Sweet solitude had been replaced by the disconcerting feeling of being thrust—or rather, yanked—through an opening that was far too small, and it was so painful that she didn’t register what had happened until she was on the ground, flat on her back. Dizziness swept over her, her limbs tingling and her shoulder aching strangely, so she just laid there in a daze, mesmerized by the bright yellow disk in the sky and the orange cliffs that framed it._

_“No, no, no!” She heard, breaking her out of her trance. “Not another one!”_

_A green gem—gem? The name had popped into her mind, and though she knew what one looked like, she hadn’t a clue what it was—cowered against the cliff face, looking about for an exit, or at least for better protection. In one hand she held a strange remote control, and in the other she held a weapon that obviously didn’t belong to her, as she swung it in every direction. Carnelian felt that she should do something about her, but as she began to come to her senses, she realized she had bigger issues to deal with._

_There were gems everywhere, every shape and size, duking it out with everything they had. Her slightly-more-informed intuition told her that there were two sides to this fight, and that she should stick with the gems that looked the most like her, but in a sea of defects from both groups, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded._

_A shadow came over her, and she rolled out of the way just before she could be trampled by a group of gems that she could only identify as her enemy. And then again. And again. It was as if no one could see her, at knee height of everyone else, which had its own benefits as well as disadvantages. Only a couple of enemies noticed her, but no one tried to stop her as she barreled across the pass and attempted to climb back into the space she had come from. When her perceived safety was just within her grasp, however, it was brutally ripped away from her; with her hole at eye level, it only acted to make her more of a target._

_Strong hands gripped her by the arm, the one that still continued to ache from her traumatic birth, and threw her onto the ground, the impact twice as strong as it had been when she emerged._

_“This is for your own good!” The gem growled desperately, raising her foot and angling her heel towards Carnelian’s afflicted shoulder. This was the end to a very short life, she was sure of it, and while her instincts told her to fight and survive, her body was frozen in fear._

_She felt a strangely familiar presence beside her then, and more strong hands pulled her away from harm, flinging her back towards the cliff._

_“Go, run!” She heard, and in the split second before she complied, she caught a glimpse of a tall, red gem in her place, struggling against the enemy, who even towered over her. Carnelian had no point of reference, but she could tell it was a losing fight, not in her comrade’s favor, but she didn’t have time to think of what to do in this situation. All she knew was what her instincts were screaming at her: run._

_And then she saw a weapon materialize in the enemy’s hand, a nasty-looking serrated blade. She could have caught the gem’s attention, she could have perhaps saved her kindergarten mate, but the words caught in her throat, and her feet stuck to the ground. The enemy gripped her by the hair and lifted her to a standing position like she was nothing, and raised the knife to the red-orange gem that sat on the left side of her chest._

_“NO!” She screamed, the first word to tear through her throat, but was lost to the commotion around her. The gem turned her head slightly, offering her a reassuring smile. It was the one and only time Carnelian had seen her face, or that of any of her team, for that matter._

_The enemy thrust her knife forward, the gem shuddered and groaned, and then she was gone in a puff of red and a sprinkling of shards. “Seeing red” was more than just a metaphor, as Carnelian felt her first jolt of pure, unadulterated fury, mere minutes out of the ground. She didn’t even know the gem whose life had been ended so soon; all she knew was this was the first gem to save her and to attempt to give her the tiniest bit of comfort, even with a nice pointed to the very core of her being. She would avenge this gem, and the countless others who lay shattered around her; all reason had left her before it even had time to manifest, replaced with burning rage._

_It felt like molten lava pouring from her core and pervading her entire body, and she could see nothing but the enemy and thousands of shards._

_It wasn’t until the battle had naturally progressed further down the pass that she came to her senses, with plum-colored flames licking at her face in her peripheral vision, and a sturdy club gripped tightly in her left hand, shaking violently. The enemy was long gone. She could have ignored Carnelian and moved on, or she could have been victim to the blunt object the small gem now wielded, but it didn’t matter. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, as the rage left her body as quickly as it came and left her feeling empty and vulnerable._

_Somehow—in her dazed, shell-shocked state—she managed to drag herself into one of the upper exit holes and press herself against the back wall, hugging her weapon to her chest. As the fighting surged and retreated below, all she could do was hope that no one would discover her. Maybe if she stayed there long enough, she would sink back into the rock and emerge again into a more pleasant setting._

_“Are there any survivors?!”_

_She was roused from her stupor by a deep, commanding voice that her inner tuition told her was a friend, not someone that would try to kill her. Although she couldn’t get her body to move into action, Carnelian could manage an audible cough to alert them to her presence, a raspy “help…”_

_“I heard someone! Over there!” A softer voice replied, followed by running footsteps, scuffling against the cliff face, and then there she was. A gem she had never seen before peeked inside the hole, concern etched on her face as her yellow eyes glowed in the gloom. “A Carnelian…” she whispered, before shouting towards her comrade, “Muscles, I found a live one!”_

_“How’s she looking?” The deeper voice called from below._

_The gem before her reached cautiously towards her. “I’m not gonna hurt you, just let me see your gem.”_

_Numbly, Carnelian complied, flinching when she grabbed a hold of her arm but otherwise remaining calm. After a quick look over, she shouted again to the other gem. “Undamaged, but pretty shaken.” Then, she turned back to Carnelian. “You have to come back with us to get your orders. The Crystal Gems are gone, for now.”_

_“W-what about the others?” She asked in a small voice._

_“We can talk about that later,” the gem replied, but the way her eyebrows knitted together sympathetically was enough to confirm her greatest fear._

 

“This is gonna be fun,” 8XG heard Carnelian say, shoulder her club in preparation.

Twisting her hair up and out of her face, 8XG could only hope that her demeanor exuded as much confidence as that little menace. She was no fool; she knew better than to underestimate those Betas, well before the display from moments ago, and Carnelian was the most unpredictable of the bunch. The way the others kept glances down at her conspiratorially made her nervous, but she couldn’t let it show. Flashing a cocky grin, she held her own weapon out for display, letting the bright lights of the barracks catch on its surface.

It wasn’t going to be easy, but 8XG was confident she could take her, with her full, formal training. To her knowledge, most of the Betas didn’t even get that, learning all they knew on the battlefield and what basic defense skills the Agates could beat into their heads on quieter days. They were vicious and crafty, but they were hardly the prize fighters that the aristocrats boasted of in their visits to the menagerie.

She was so focused on taking on Carnelian, given their proximity in their respective groups, that she was completely blindsided by what happened next.

The referee held her hand aloft, causing the room to go quiet in anticipation, before dropping it sharply, and everyone in the ring fell into action. Instead of going straight for 8XG, however, Carnelian flipped _backwards_ into a spin dash, wheeling around the ring while everyone was preoccupied, and bashed the back of Eff’s head before 8XG could even comprehend what she was doing. She had to admit, that was a gutsy move: the smallest taking on the largest, and planning to from the very beginning, no less. In her peripheral vision, she could see Skinny laugh and cheer, and for a second, she had to wonder whether the Beta leader had known she would do this.

And then 8XG was leaping sideways as Cleft burst out of nowhere, wielding nothing but her fists, which she flung at her with reckless abandon. Fine, two could play at this game, as she quickly dissipated her own weapon and brawled with the Jasper hand to hand. She managed to catch one fist in her palm, hooking her leg and thrusting her to the ground before the other fist could fly up in retaliation. Pinning her other arm under her knee, 8XG grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked back mercilessly, waiting for her to submit.

Suddenly, she felt sharp pinpricks in her upper thigh that made her jolt, just enough for Cleft to wriggle out from under her. Scrambling back into a standing position, she and Cleft moved around one another in a tight circle. Her fists were opened wide now, revealing vicious claws, with matching fangs, resembling an organic predator.

“Impressive!” She admitted begrudgingly, trying to keep an eye on both the Beta and the fighting around them in the tight space.

Cleft bared her shape-shifted appendages even more. “Maybe when I’m done tearing your ass to pieces, I’ll teach ya a thing or two!”

“I’d like to see you try!” 8XG summoned her weapon again, deciding that this was going to be a little harder than she thought.

 

Eff held her head with one hand, swinging her mace wildly as her vision blurred for one critical moment, dodging fists and blades and blunt objects in very un-Eff-like fashion. She didn’t feel pain, per se—as beings made of light energy, the only pain a gem could feel was in their gems—but she did recall a dull thump against the back of head that made her snap forward, her chin practically colliding with her chest.

Just as she found her center of gravity, squaring her shoulders and widening her stance, she felt another impact against her left shin, so hard she nearly toppled over.

“Where are you?!” She shouted, growing frustrated. She swung her mace blindly, moving around in a complete circle. She knew it was Carnelian trying to throw her off, that ambitious little monster.

Finally, Eff saw her, or rather the fiery blur of her as she wheeled around her feet, just begging to get kicked but too fast to catch. Eff prided herself on having an excellent sense of humor, surprisingly unfazed by inconveniences despite how aggressive she outwardly appeared, but at this moment her patience was wearing thin. The worst part of this fight was that she knew Carnelian was doing this for that very reason, grown used to fighting gems twice her size who had the ego to match. Luckily, Eff’s ego was more of a persona than a character trait, at least that was how she saw it, and it was easy to separate herself from that. If she had to let this twerp humiliate her a little more to make her think she was getting the upper hand, then so be it. So, instead of going in for the attack when Carnelian slowed out of her dash again, she let her mace dissipate from her hand, leaving herself vulnerable, not even bothering to look behind her, where Carnelian now was.

She braced herself for an attack that didn’t come, and knew that while ambitious, Carnelian wasn’t stupid. Eff could feel her stalking, sizing her up, the predatory nature of her tactics actually setting the Prime gem on edge. These Betas could certainly be unsettling at times.

Closing her eyes, Eff took that moment’s reprieve to rely solely on her Quartz senses, a talent that she hadn’t used since the war—besides the occasional moment to look out for Holly—but it was still effective, as she tracked Carnelian’s every move. It seemed that she had expected Eff to do just this, strafing from left to right at odd intervals, but Eff tracked her easily, twitching her head from one side to the other to show that she knew. They were both onto the other’s game, leaving what most would have guessed would be an interesting (and quick) fight to a stalemate.

“Move, dammit!” She heard Carnelian shout from behind, thumping her heavy club against the ground impatiently.

“Not with that attitude, runt,” Eff chuckled, surprising herself with how calm she sounded and felt.

Suddenly, she felt another type of pain, as Carnelian threw herself bodily at her with all her might, ditching the club altogether in favor of her fists, which worked almost as well. There was a searing heat coming off of her that would have burnt an organic to a crisp, and Eff could tell that she had effectively pissed her off somehow. That idea was both satisfying and perplexing, but she didn’t have the time to think about it, her hair beginning to catch on fire. Crying out in surprise, she attempted to role away from her, but Carnelian had her arms wrapped around the larger gem’s neck, squeezing tightly.

Changing tactics, Eff threw herself to the side and slammed her elbow down against Carnelian’s face, causing her grip to loosen enough to get away. Carnelian screamed at the impact, but she was up and ready for a brawl in no time, one hand gripping her club—which was now flaming—and the other holding her bruised nose. There wasn’t any trace of playfulness in her gaze, just blazing fury, the likes of which Eff had never seen in her before.

Not wasting any time, she swung her mace at the smaller gem, feeling that the sooner she knocked her out of the ring, the sooner Carnelian could get some time to cool off. She dodged, but instead of moving out of her range, she leapt onto the handle of the weapon, using it as leverage to throw herself right at Eff’s face, returning the favor from earlier with club raised. Legitimately fearing for her safety in that moment, she turned her head away to protect her gem, and the club connected with the other side of her head. For the second time, she was rendered nearly blind, stumbling dizzily to the side before finally losing her balance and falling into the crowd.

“Never. Call. Me. That.” Carnelian grumbled, before stalking out of the ring unprompted.

“8XF and Carnelian have been disqualified!!!” The referee announced, as if that fact hadn’t been blaringly obvious.

All she could do was lay on the ground, waiting for her vision to return. Feeling a foot tap against her side, she turned her head to see Skinny crouched beside her, gazing at her quizzically.

“We lost a teammate at the end of the war that used to call her ‘Runt,’” she explained sympathetically. “You’re lucky she didn’t destroy your form for that.”

“I didn’t know,” Eff groaned, turning her face back to the floor.

Skinny laughed, patting the back of her head. “Carn’s a bit of a loose cannon, especially in the heat of battle. Something to keep in mind for next time.”

Feeling the dizziness subside a bit, Eff began to sit up. “Are you really helping me defeat your little red-hot soulmate?” She teased.

Skinny gave her a lopsided grin, unfazed by the accusation. “I’m just trying to make the fight a little more fair,” she fired back, “because she just whooped your butt in no time at all.”

 

While the fights on one side of the ring were more isolated, this side had coalesced into a practically indiscernible mess to everyone but those who knew both groups well enough to know who would go for who.

8XB and Cee had been a close-knit team since they emerged, alone with Aye, who unfortunately didn’t make it out of the war, so it was inevitable that they would square off with two of the triplets. The final triplet was preoccupied with Eye at the moment, which was looking more sensual than combative as time progressed, so it was easy to say that they were evenly matched. It may have been a two-on-two fight, but it might as well have been one-on-one, with how coordinated they were with their respective teammates. 8XB couldn’t help but wonder what a fusion battle would have been like between the two of them, but the barracks weren’t big enough for a fight of that magnitude.

It was honestly a little disappointing, because she was thoroughly enjoying the challenge.

Cee fell to the ground and threw out a swiping kick, which one triplet dodged but the other wasn’t as lucky. The one still standing back away and aimed her slingshot, the projectiles in its sling sparking in a way that 8XB didn’t like. Thinking fast, Cee jumped up and pushed 8XB out of the way, just as the projectile whizzed past her head and into the crowd. When it struck the back wall of the barracks, it exploded in a puff of reddish smoke, momentarily blinding them. It would have worked against everyone involved, if it weren’t for the fact that the Betas were known to have excellent eyesight.

8XB had an idea, falling to her knees beside Cee, she whispered, “stay down and follow me.”

They crawled beneath the smoke, one clutching a weapon and the other bristling with pent-up energy, just begging to be released. They looked for the two pairs of feet that stood the closest together and decidedly went in for the kill, grabbing them by the ankles and taking them down. They quickly learned of their error.

“Hey, get off!” Jay cried, pushing 8XB away and attempting to look for her weapon in the gloom.

Cee flinched out of the way as her own prey kicked her hands. In the scuffle, it pushed just enough of the smoke out of the way to reveal Oldie, knife in hand, dragging Jay back to their own space. She was just about to go after them, when the Jasper that she had originally kicked came out of nowhere, pulling her up off the ground and pinning her arms behind her back. Though she was a little smaller than the Amethyst, she was practically carrying her to the edge of the ring, while her companion aimed another smoke bomb at 8XB.

When the smoke finally dissipated, the audience was greeted by quite the scene. Cee was close to losing, 8XB was in a bind, and the Jaspers before them had evidently won. Oldie and Jay were wrestling on the floor with reckless abandon. Bandit was sitting on top of Eye without even attempting to hold her down as Eye fought to sit back up, no doubt to kiss her. Cleft was growling furiously as Gee gave up on fighting back altogether and instead put her energy into avoiding the wild Jasper. Eff sat cross-legged outside the ring with a bored expression on her face, and Carnelian did the same, though she looked more peeved than bored. The rest were in similar states, when a lookout came bursting into the room.

“Holly’s coming!” She shouted breathlessly, and within an instant the fight was forgotten.

Eff hauled herself off the ground and ran to the distressed gem. “What do you mean? Since when? You were supposed to message us!”

“I _did_ ,” she replied in exasperation, “but no one answered!”

“Is she suspicious?” The referee asked, looking guilty. It was her job to keep tabs with the lookouts while Eff was busy, after all.

The lookout shook her head. “I don’t think so. She just came out of her office in a hurry, muttering about duties. I think she just realized she forgot about us.”

“Let’s hope,” Eff stated, gesturing for everyone to either vacate or fill in the circle they had formed and the cubbies they had left empty in their excitement.

It was determined that it would take some time for Holly to arrive, as her office was on the level above and she was moving rather reluctantly to scold them for something that wasn’t even their fault. There was a great rush to hide any evidence of their merry-making, but it wasn’t as urgent as it could have been. At the very least, there was time for the combatants to make peace with one another before the match was put on an indefinite hold.

The triplet before 8XB lowered her slingshot with a smirk and the other released Cee. “No hard feelings, right?” They asked.

“Of course not,” she answered before Cee could cut in with a rude remark.

“Just don’t expect us to go easy on ya next time, Betas,” Cee added anyway, as if they had simply let the Jaspers win this time. 8XB shook her head in amusement; even after the tumultuous time Cee had endured, her attitude was still as biting as ever. Nevertheless, they shook on it, and the triplets left to go disentangle their sister from Eye, both of whom were oblivious to what was going on around them.

 

Holly Blue Agate refused to think of this as a blunder. No, it wasn’t her fault.

It wasn’t her fault that those useless clods didn’t alert her to their idleness. It wasn’t her fault that she was stuck on this miserable hunk of metal. It wasn’t her fault that Blue hardly acknowledged her during her visits, or that Blue failed to visit. Of course, it wasn’t Blue Diamond’s fault, either; no, it was the grief she continued to feel after Pink Diamond’s demise, so very, very long ago. All she could do was hope that Blue would soon overcome her grief and finally grow tired of the Earth-born soldiers and this pointless menagerie dedicated to a planet that was a good as dead, along with its former ruler.

But in the meantime, she had a job to do. Shirking her responsibilities wasn’t going to encourage Blue to give her a job that was actually worth something, preferably with gems native to her own court. Setting her displeasure aside, she carried herself with an air that was more befitting of her status: a true Homeworld gem, in command of a group of outcast soldiers, and she was determined to treat them as such.

She lifted her chin a little higher, squared her shoulders, and glared down her nose, honing in on the first soldier she found mucking about. The Amethyst had nowhere to hide, so she simply stood there and saluted her dumbly, fear in her eyes, a response that pleased Holly more than unquestioning compliance would ever would from this miserable lot.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She asked icily.

She took immense pleasure in watching her squirm. “I-I was just w-waiting for orders, Holly,” she replied meekly.

Holly didn’t even try to hold back. She raised her palm and slapped the Amethyst across the face, sending her reeling into the wall behind her. “So, no orders mean that there’s no work to be done, eh?” she snapped viciously. “You lazy, good-for-nothing Quartzes have tried my patience for the last time!” And although she meant the threat when she gave, she hadn’t the slightest idea how she could possibly change how things were done at the station in a way that would suit her.

Throwing one last dismissive glare at the soldier, who cowered pathetically on the floor, she continued on toward the barracks. She was determined to keep her composure, to gracefully strike fear in her charges as she had done before the war, but she could already feel a headache coming on, right at the base of her gem.

Ah, how she longed for the good old days, when Agates were permitted to shatter any soldier she deemed a lost cause with minimal clearance. With the shortage of viable ground for kindergarten production, they were expected to make due with what they had, even with gems as troublesome as these. She resisted the urge to summon her whip, though it would have made a greater impact; she wanted to terrify them as Blue Diamond would, silent, mysterious, potentially deadly.

As she approached the barracks, the sound of voices met her at the end of the hall while, simultaneously, her headache grew in intensity.

 _Think of the good old days, Holly,_ she told herself, straightening her cape, and marching right into the room unannounced.

The soldiers truly were pitiful, languishing about the room, listlessly waiting for her to tell them what to do, as if they hadn’t been doing the same thing for the past few thousand years. Only a few of the soldiers by the door noticed her, shrinking away into the crowd, but the rest remained infuriatingly—purposefully!—oblivious of her presence. It was only when she stopped in the middle of the room, stomped one foot, and clicked her heels together with a stern clearing of her throat that the talked ceased altogether, all eyes on her.

Holly looked around the room, gazing into the eyes of every single gem within striking distance, committing each to memory. She didn’t care what these gems had been up to, or whether they were guilty of any wrongdoing that required punishment, she was going to make them suffer, just as she was. And when she was through with them, she would find a new set of targets to torture, until she was given a station befitting her status.

“I hope you enjoyed this little holiday,” She stated coldly, “because this is the last one you’ll get for the rest of your miserable lives. Get to work. Now.”

There was a weak smattering of complaints that she would have retaliated at, if it weren’t for tension that distracted her, accompanied by an uneasiness that she had never experienced, at least not around underling soldiers such as these. The glares she felt from the group held far more weight than the usual glares an Agate would receive, but it wasn’t those who responded to her abuse with anger that concerned her. There were others who seemed completely unbothered; in fact, it seemed a vast majority of the room was either indifferent or sharing significant looks with one another. Some even smiled. She would punish them, too.

But she couldn’t ignore the paranoia that began to rise inside her, as unwarranted as it was. She resolved to retreat to her office, telling herself that it was simply to nurse her headache and nothing else, considering how she would proceed. Perhaps ordering a new surveillance system was in order, if she could even trust that Homeworld was still listening to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, finally, FINALLY, we can wind down to the ending! Now that I've gotten past this part, I'm going to put this fic on hiatus until I've completed a chapter or two in my Jasper fic, and a couple other pieces I've had sitting in my inbox on Tumblr. Anyways, thanks for reading!


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